united-states intellectual-property patents
Do Patents have to be original?
<p>Do patents have to be original work? I mean, if I have an idea and I talk about it online (say a forums), and then someone patents the idea a month later, can I sue that person for plagiarism or something?</p>

<p>On top of that question, can Google's indexed search results be presented as evidence that I got to it first?</p>

<p>ADD: if you have an idea within content that is then copyrighted then later on, someone patents it, is that patenting legal?</p>

<p>There is a novelty requirement for US patents. Public disclosure of an invention negates its novelty. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/102" rel="nofollow noreferrer">35 USC § 102(a)(1)</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A person shall be entitled to a patent unless the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you disclose your invention, nobody (except you) can patent it.</p>

<p>If the inventor makes a public disclosure of an invention, that inventor can still file for a patent on that invention within one year of their disclosure.</p>

<p>102(b)(1)(A):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A disclosure made 1 year or less before the effective filing date of a claimed invention shall not be prior art to the claimed invention [...] if the disclosure was made by the inventor [...]</p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<p><sub>Mere ideas can't be patented nor copyrighted. Patents protect new and useful processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter, not ideas. Copyright protects expression, not ideas.</sub></p>
