[jackschultz]

> How cool would it be if Apple, Samsung, Oracle and Google got into a Mexican Standoff on Ask Patents? If each of those companies had three or four engineers dedicating a few hours every day to picking off their competitors’ applications, the number of granted patents to those companies would grind to a halt.

Wouldn't the result of this be that the company who finds out that they have the earliest implementation of the code in question be able to get the patent for it?

[mattip]

The first publisher of an invention has a year to file a patent on it. Because of the length of time taken to get to a filing, by the time this prior-art shootout takes place more than a year will have gone by and the prior art will actually disallow anyone from patenting the invention, including the original inventor.

[mdda]

But that could easily be for an idea that's proven to be over 17 years old (<1996 and counting up). So they'd be digging through the floor, and might fall through.