In reference to the patent application: US20040107227
I don't see any other legal events than the filing in 2002. Did IBM abandon this? Does that mean SMR is nod in the public domain? Does anyone know if IBM has publicly stated that it is not interested in pursuing patent rights for this?
Any hint/link/definitive answer would be appreciated.
To simplify, this patent was denied by examiner and later appealed by applicant till 2010, which means they fought a lot to get it grant, but ultimately it was denied and the method as stated in the patent application has no protection.
Now comes the second part. If a patent doesn't get a grant, it doesn't really mean other patents will not be filed or in line. For this technology itself, I see many other patent application either filed or granted to applicant.
For more information please see this Google search page. It is just a beginning; you might get more patents if you try with more specific keywords.
