>Or more practically, you'd probably want to sell a service based upon >you're one implementation of that single instance. Just keep skimming >from everyone's pocket to keep the fatted calf alive until the patent >protection ran out Yeah, I thought of that--but, with so much at stake, patents wouldn't mean much. Someone would read your patent, duplicate your work, and go set up shop in a poor nation that's more interested in feeding its people than enforcing your patent. You might do better not applying for a patent at all, and just keeping it secret--but Nature keeps no secrets; once you'd proved it was possible, someone else would figure it out. /=================================================================\ |John Stracke |Principal Engineer | |jstracke@incentivesystems.com |Incentive Systems, Inc. | |http://www.incentivesystems.com |My opinions are my own. | |=================================================================| |Among animals, it's eat or be eaten. Among people, it's define or| |be defined. | \=================================================================/