As a general reply, since you three all used the phrase submarine patent, I'm fairly certain that term gets thrown around in a misleading manner.
A submarine patent isn't just someone coming along and saying I have a patent on what you're doing so stop it and/or give me money. The technical term for that is just "patents", that's what they're for.
A submarine patent is a particular type of patent hi-jinx which is no longer possible in the US (though some may still be waiting to surface, from the time it was possible to create them):
A submarine patent isn't just someone coming along and saying I have a patent on what you're doing so stop it and/or give me money. The technical term for that is just "patents", that's what they're for.
A submarine patent is a particular type of patent hi-jinx which is no longer possible in the US (though some may still be waiting to surface, from the time it was possible to create them):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent