[geeks] LaBrea

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 08:43:59AM -0700, Fogg, James wrote:

> An idea I had was to have a device forward just the ports required and
> tarpit the rest. This would work for a single IP. This is a feature that
> should be implemented in a firewall or router. I suppose I should pattent
> the idea but have no idea how to go about it.

Well, patents were made for the little people.  And as such, the
process is supposed to be fairly easy.  The first step should probably
be to visit this web page:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm
I believe what you would want would be a utility patent.  

The tricky part is that you need to cite prior work done (although the
vast majority of computer related patents don't seem to bother with
this), and find out what patents you are basing your work on.  By now
they probably would have all expired, considering the age of TCP/IP,
but I still believe you need to find them.

You may find it informational to look at those related patents to see
how they were written anyway.  Generally, you want to be unspecific
about the implimentation details, but if you are honest, not so
unspecific that you can later claim to have patented the idea of
networking computers together 20 years after people have been doing
it. 

And if you really want to absolutely make sure the patent sticks, a
patent lawyer for the first few patents would probably be a good idea.

And remeber, patents look good the ole C.V., but make sure that any
future (or current) employment contracts aren't going to try to take
them away from you.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd