Sorry, a TRADEMARK must be defended in the U.S.
A Patent does not.
You don't have to take my word for it. Go to
http://www.law.cornelle.edu and go to US Code 35, PART III, CHAPTER
29, "Remedies". You will find that paragraph 286 is the only one in
which non-enforcement affects your ability to get remedies for patent
infringement, and furthermore, it only affects THAT PARTICULAR
INFRINGEMENT -- i.e., it doesn't affect any other infringement. The time
limit, BTW, is six years (if you violate the patent for six years and
they don't sue you, they can't sue you anymore).
Just for laughs, read the entire U.S. Code 35. You will see that
it grants you the patent. Period. The only thing that can happen once
the patent is granted is that the patent can be taken away if it is shown
that there was prior art on the patented material or that the patented
material was in fact non-patentable due to failing the obviousness test
(fat chance on the latter!). Nowhere is there a requirement that the
patent be defended.
Again, don't take my word for it. The U.S. Code 35 is the final
authority here, and it is fairly clear (unlike the Patent Office's
actual rules and procedures :-).
BTW, the time span of new patents was just increased to 20 years. Yet
another case of our government sticking up for big business at the
expense of consumers.
-- Eric Lee Green eric@linux-hw.com http://www.linux-hw.com/~eric "Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, that is trusted in mission critical applications..." -- internal Microsoft memo
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