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Moving on With Patents and Open-Source Software (ComputerWorld)
HP's Stormy Peters has a
column in ComputerWorld urging the free software community to start
playing the software patent game for real. "Building its own
portfolio of actual patents, not just the right to use them, enables the
open-source community to effectively defend open-source software and to use
its patents to negotiate cross-patent agreements. Open-source developers
should file for as many software patents as they can and stockpile them. By
working with the system, you can file for patents, accumulate them and use
them to protect your software rights."
(Log in to post comments)
Moving on With Patents and Open-Source Software (ComputerWorld) Posted Sep 7, 2005 16:07 UTC (Wed) by jeroen (subscriber, #12372) [Link] This might be a defense for some cases, but wouldn't solve the problem of patent trolls (companies which only have patents and their only business is selling licences for those). Such trolls don't make software, so don't infringe any patents you might have. And even if the company does make sofware, it doesn't have to infringe any patents you have. A patent portfolio is useless in such cases.
Although it might be worthwhile to create something like this, we shouldn't forget that patenting software is fundamentally broken and that the current patent system doesn't function correctly. We should continue to work on fixing those issues. The rejected EU software patent directive shows that we can have success doing this, but even in the EU we only won just one battle. The fight will continue. The commission started working on the community patent again and that directive might legalise software patents either implicitly or explicitly.
Moving on With Patents and Open-Source Software (ComputerWorld) Posted Sep 7, 2005 21:41 UTC (Wed) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link] I wonder if some of the equally bad "business method" patents might not be useful against a patent troll. If someone is harassing you with a frivolous software patent, you don't necessary have to answer with a software patent. You just need a patent that covers some aspect of their activities.
How much do patents cost? Posted Sep 7, 2005 17:34 UTC (Wed) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] Last I remember, it cost upwards of $20K just to file a patent. And if someone challenges it, a million dollars. The $20K might not be so bad for RedHat, but it isn't even close to reasonable for independent developers. I don't see how this is much of a help.
How much do patents cost? Posted Sep 7, 2005 17:55 UTC (Wed) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link] A million bucks to fight a patent?
Damn.
You could probably buy a number of senators for that. Change the laws, get the thing fixed for real. (Unfortunately, all the people currently doing the whole predatory patent thing can afford more senators than you can, so this won't really work.)
-Rob
Moving on With Patents and Open-Source Software (ComputerWorld) Posted Sep 7, 2005 18:03 UTC (Wed) by danielpf (subscriber, #4723) [Link] "Stormy Peters is manager of HP's Open Source Program Office."
Should I conclude that HP is willing to take care of the trivial cost issue?
Why ? Posted Sep 7, 2005 18:07 UTC (Wed) by xav (subscriber, #18536) [Link] The only people enjoying patents are lawyers: whatever the outcome of a patent litigation, they'll always get serious money. That's why people encouraging patents are a little bit suspect in my eyes.
Why ? Posted Sep 7, 2005 20:07 UTC (Wed) by fjf33 (subscriber, #5768) [Link] With a Bachelor in Engineering and an MBA I've been considering moving into patent law. It is a realxing, non-threatening money machine. There aren't enough to go around, because some engineering/technical knowledge is necessary. With my luck they'll start outsourcing that by the time I have to pay the college loans.
Another recommendation Posted Sep 7, 2005 20:10 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] All you people who want to reform the city noise ordinance so you can sleep at night need to get with the program.
The Association of Lawyers Who Crank Loud Music On Their Car Stereos recommends that you buy houses with bigger front yards.
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