
Consider a Spherical Patent: IP and Patenting in Technology Business
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very similar subject matter and therefore residing near each other in IP space,
nevertheless have dierent claims and occupy dierent parts of the IP space.
If, to be patentable, an invention had only to be novel, then the spherical patents
in the IP space could just touch each other and the prior art, as in the Apollonian
gasket example of Figures8.3(a) through 8.3(f). e distance D would be zero.
As long as the claims were not identical, the spherical patents could be said to
cover dierent inventions and thus could be considered novel with respect to
each other and to ...