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They can only do it if it was not publicly disclosed. You cannot patent something which has been kept a trade secret.



I think it's actually the opposite. In the US, the regulations changed several years ago from "First to Invent" (which is ambiguous) to "First to File" (which is pretty clear). In any event, I think you can only claim something as prior art if it's in the public domain. So, if you're very shady/greedy/lack an ethical backbone, and you get your hands on a private brief that isn't protected intellectual property, technically you can file that patent. I assume the owner could try to prove theft if they can determine how the IP was leaked and stolen intently.


Those AMD presentations are publicly available though. It looks like hot chips is a tech conference, and those AMD presentations were published as part of HC 28. I’ll follow up with a link if I can find one, but I think it’s pretty clear they are not in any way trade secrets.


I don’t understand what you mean. Does AMD’s public disclosure of the microarchitecture prevent them from filing prior art?


Yeah that comment is confusingly worded. I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that there is no explicit relationship between patent-ability and something being a trade secret. The important thing is just that patent applications are public, so once you file, your "secrets" are no longer secret.


This. The whole idea of a patent is that companies share the details of the invention in the patent in exchange for a temporary monopoly on the idea.




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