Christie's auction and other computer history events

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> writes:

 Tom> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005, Tom Jennings wrote:
 >> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005, Eric Smith wrote:
 >> 
 >>> Several of the developers of early computers said in interviews
 >>> in the 1970s and later that they had been unaware of Babbage's
 >>> work.

 Tom> It's clear to me that many of them would have a stake in 'no
 Tom> prior art' or a defensible 'no knowldge of prior art'...

The former, sure.  The latter, why?  In patents at least, prior art
matters, whether you have knowledge of it or not.

	 paul