I. Introduction

1. About patents in general

Patents imply an intellectual property of their proprietors. Practicing a patent is only allowed exclusively to somebody who is entitled to a patent. Patents may be sold or bought like any other property. For the proprietor a patent having a term of up to 20 years provides a vast commercial advantage. Everybody can become a licencee by paying a royalty to the proprietor in order to be able to practice this specific patent. Infringing a patent, i.e. to practice a patent without the proprietorīs permission is a crime and will be punished. Sounds tough, but is the practice.

No doubt, patent-documents are a very intellectual literature. Their contents finally is aimed to the so-called persons skilled in the art of a specific field of technics. A patent specification comprises - similar to a composition - of three parts: Introduction, Main Part, End. At first the introduction discusses the known state of the art of a specific field of technics until the filing day date and the disadvantages of this state of the art which the inventor had encountered and how he tries to overcome these disadvantages. Herein the invention is described in a very abstract and general way at first and finally by preferred embodiments which relate to the annexed figures. The claims play a very important role, as they describe as broadly as possible what is actually under protection conferred by the patent. Their formulation must therefore be very exact and precise as the contents ot the claims (especially of the main claim) play an essential role in possible infringement disputes or lincincee cases. The text of a patent claim is practically speaking a law which is to be obeyed by third party prohibiting them to practice the teaching of the patent claims without the explicit permission of the proprietor. For the proprietor, however, the claims mean an exclusive right, i.e. practicing the patent is only allowed to the proprietor. The claimed teaching of a patent claim must be as concrete as possible on one hand in order to fullfill the patent requirements by the PTO, on the other hand this teaching must be as abstract as possible in order not to reveal too much know-how to the public. The patent attorney the applicantīs representative before the PTO should know how to formulate the whole application and the claims, respectively, providing the best practice to his client. In the PTO the whole application is examined. The examiner, an expert in a certain field of technics, examines the whole application and compares the contents of the claims to the known state of the art of this certain field. If there is a difference left over which the expert cannot simply overcome than finally a patent will be granted. Granting a patent is not a privilege but a general right to which every applicant is entitled to after fullfilling all patent requirements.

A patent granted by the USPTO is protected against infringements only in the U.S. The basic patents of AMIGA technology are protected not only domestically but additionally worldwide by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation).

After the successful approval of a patent the PTO is also in charge of the patent publication. On the front page of a published patent all bibliographic data can be quoted.

Top of the Front Page of US- Patent 4,777,621

On July 19th 1985 a patent application is filed at the USPTO titled "Video Game and Personal Computer" to which a patent is granted on Oct. 11th 1988 under US Patent NO. 4 777 621. This might be called the first AMIGA patent. The assignee is Commodore-AMIGA, Inc., Los Gatos, Ca. The "patent-career" of the AMIGA had begun. Four days later on July, 23rd 1985 the AMIGA is introduced to the public in Lincoln Center, New York. But the roots of the AMIGA are going back much further.

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Last modified: February 06, 2002