- Patents also protect retroactively (12 months before filing date in most jurisdictions), meaning that prior art that could invalidate the patent must be publicly known before that priority date
- Most patent cases don't go to court, far more often some kind of deal with license payments is offered to avoid that
I am not a lawyer, but I am quite an expert in the patent field since 2002 when I joined the fight against software patents in the EU.
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