[this is way offtopic]
The patent on the Coca-Cola recipe expired years ago (last I checked there
was an 18 year cap on patents in the US). This is why things like
Diffie-Hellman algorithms are now free, you can not issue another patent on
them because they are considered "mainstream". (In fact, I believe the
formula for coca-cola was leaked a number of years ago and printed in a
major daily newspaper).
The US patent system is actually fairly well done for what it is. The
problem is that there are so many patents that it's near impossible to
verify if a product should be given a patent or not. Of course, there have
been stupid things patented (the binary system for example) which would
never hold up in court because they are considered too mainstream.
Basically, the idea is... you can patent anything you want, however it
doesn't guarantee that your patent will be revoked in the future because the
technology already existed and was considered common knowledge.
Jordan
-- Jordan Mendelson : http://jordy.wserv.com Web Services, Inc. : http://www.wserv.com
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