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[Web] SW Patents - Voting delayedANN.lu
Posted on 02-Sep-2003 08:53 GMT by Fabio Alemagna155 comments
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Since there's been already quite some talk about SW patents here, I'd thought I'd update you with the latest happenings: the protest has had success, the voting date has been postponed to some day during the last week of September!

ZDNet has an article about it.
SW Patents - Voting delayed : Comment 151 of 155ANN.lu
Posted by Phill on 05-Sep-2003 12:31 GMT
In reply to Comment 132 (Bill Hoggett):
>I wonder who is worse: the users who openly prefer free software or the
> pirates that make up the vast majority of Windows users, and for that matter
> the majority of Amiga users in its heyday.

Yes, that is a good question.

IMHO a pirate uses copied software, but accepts it is wrong ( in fact that is probably the main motivation ). While someone that is fanatical about open source expects all software to be free & thinks that anyone that charges for software is morally wrong.

Phill
SW Patents - Voting delayed : Comment 152 of 155ANN.lu
Posted by Phill on 05-Sep-2003 12:45 GMT
In reply to Comment 150 (BrianK):
>In the US you've violated a patent if the patent owner takes you to court and >the court finds that you have accutally violated the patent.

Thats true in all countries AFAIK

>Alternatively, a company could settle out of court for patent 'violation'.
> However, even in said settlements it is rare that the preceived violator
> agrees to fault.

I believe that is the usual situation. Normally the settlement is a swapping of patent licenses. When Intel were found to have ripped parts of the Alpha design, the settlement involved Intel paying way too much for parts of Digital.

IMHO Unless you work for a multi million dollar turnover company, then patent violation isn't really worth worrying about. You're more likely to get raided for your mp3 collection.

Phill
SW Patents - Voting delayed : Comment 153 of 155ANN.lu
Posted by mark on 05-Sep-2003 23:41 GMT
In reply to Comment 71 (samface):
"I give them credit for the Start menu, but is there really much besides this that they invented on their own?"

I'm sure the Apple menu was around before Windows' start menu.
SW Patents - Voting delayed : Comment 154 of 155ANN.lu
Posted by mark on 05-Sep-2003 23:46 GMT
In reply to Comment 111 (Phill):
"Or nobody might invent the wheel if they are scared they won't make enough money out of it. If a company really does invent something new then maybe they do have the right to make money out of it.

"Don't forget you can't patent something that has already been demonstrated, whether it's patented or not. You can't just go around patenting things that have been around for years. In fact you currently can't patent something you invented yourself, if you discuss it with someone else before filling the patent. "

If things were being done properly, then yes. But the current system needs to be fixed before expanding it further. For example, someone did patent the wheel ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1418165.stm ).

"Then of course, even if you are granted the patent. Time for a suprise.... it's completely worthless until you test it in court. However it's in nobodies interest to go to court, because you don't ever want one to be invalidated ( which happens quite a lot ). So all that happens is you then need to swap some patents with the other party and everyone is happy. If you have no patents then nobody will care about you anyway. "

Only if both parties have similar amounts of money. Otherwise, a big company can sue a little company, and the little company won't have the money to defend it in court.

I don't think it's true that companies won't care about companies without patents - they'd be even easier to take money from, and more importantly, run out of business. And this is exactly the problem - patents raise barriers of entry to markets, reducing competition.

"The best part about patents is you can use the information freely, as long as you don't intefere with the patent holders ability to make money from it. "

Really? I thought whether you can use them was solely up to the patent holder, and that included non-commercial use also.
SW Patents - Voting delayed : Comment 155 of 155ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Sep-2003 10:25 GMT
In reply to Comment 154 (mark):
"The best part about patents is you can use the information freely, as long as you don't intefere with the patent holders ability to make money from it. "

Really? I thought whether you can use them was solely up to the patent holder, and that included non-commercial use also.

****
You can use someone's patent and make a copy of the device for yourself. Typical uses are educational purposes. Also, as long as you don't sell the device to any other entities but retain it's use for yourself then you are free to copy the invention.
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