!051994 PTO revokes another patent, this time in electronics One month ago, the Patent and Trademark Office revoked a basic patent on video tape recording technology. The patent, 4,302,790, owned by Eastman Kodak, dealt with magnetic heads of video recorders. After being sued by Kodak, Sony requested a reexamination, and it seems that the prior art that Sony submitted was sufficient for the examiner to reject the original patent. This rejection froze Kodak's lawsuit against Sony (which illustrates the value of the reexamination process). Kodak has two months to appeal. Following the rejection of Compton's patent claims, and [in my opinion] to be followed by the rejection of the Bunny-rabbit patent claims, it is evident that the exponential explosion in electronics/computing literature is presenting a prior art/searching problem that not only is overwhelming industry in general, but the PTO as well. An opportunity for the community to come together and create a public solution, or for investors to fund some specialists. In any event, these reversals will increase in frequency proportional to the increase of software and electronics patents. Wish I was a lawyer. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service