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Red Hat and software patentsRed Hat and software patentsPosted Jun 3, 2002 20:58 UTC (Mon) by Carl (guest, #824)Parent article: Red Hat and software patents I did a quick search and found at least one patent that has already been granted: 6,110,226 - Java development environment using optimizing ahead-of-time compiler. It was granted to Cygnus which is now part of RedHat as you point out. This seems to describe the Gnu Compiler for Java (gcj) http://gcc.gnu.org/java/ But such patents are "safe" since RedHat obviously distributes gcj so they actually have to give a royalty free patent license (for gcj and derived works under the GPL) if they want to distribute it. From the GPL - clause 7: "If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program." I think you should also have mentioned in your article that giving a royalty free license grant to programs distributed under the GPL is more often done. Examples are the patents that Ralph Levien has and the (in)famous FSMLabs patent (Ralph also explains clearly why he only considered copylefted/GPLed programs):
http://www.levien.com/patents.html
http://www.fsmlabs.com/openpatentlicense.html P.S. You should have a clear text form, I had to add HTML markup 'p' and 'br' tags to make the above comment readable.
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Red Hat and software patents Posted Jun 3, 2002 21:41 UTC (Mon) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link] This is exactly the sort of patent, however, that demonstrates why software patents are UNMITIGATEDLY STUPID. Compilers are as old as the hills. (Well, in computer terms. In fact, in computer years, compilers are probably older than the hills in standard years.) The idea of applying a compiler to, hey, this language... well, clearly that's something novel that the boys at the patent office should get in a tizzy about, and grant monopolies on. WARNING: CRUDENESS AHEAD. I'm always thinking that I should patent wiping after using the toilet. Why? Well, two reasons. First, think of the royalties I could collect! I mean, everybody's going to want to do it, so everybody's gonna have to pay. Two, it would be doing the patent office a service: the place would certainly start to smell better once the folks there learned about this novel technique. -Rob
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