When an invention is made, the inventor has three possiblecourses of action opening to him: he can give the invention to the 1world by publishing it, keep the idea secret, or patent it. A granted patent is the result of a bargain strike between an inventor 2and the state, by which the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly and publishes full details of his invention to the public after thatperiod terminates. Only in the most exceptional circumstances the 3lifespan of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events.Because a patent remains temporarily public after it has terminated, 4the shelves of the library attached to the patent office contain detailsof literal millions of ideas that are free for anyone to use and, if older 5than half a century, sometimes even patent. Indeed, patent experts often 6advise anyone wishing to avoid the high cost of conducting a searchthrough lively patents that the one sure way of avoiding violation of 7any other inventor's right is to plagiarize a dead patent. However, 8because publication of an idea in any other form permanently validates further patents on that idea, it is traditionally safe to take ideas from other areas of print. Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security. Anyone closely involved in patents and inventions soon learns thatmost "new" ideas are, in fact, as very old as the hills. It is their reduction to 9commercial practice, either through necessity or dedication, or throughthe availability of new technology, makes news and money. 10