Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

Patents Don't Apply to Source Code

Posted Nov 22, 2006 16:26 UTC (Wed) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026)
In reply to: Novell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threat by tjc
Parent article: Novell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threat

Patents apply to behavior, not source code. There's no reason source code would be necessary or even make it easier to prove patent infringement.

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Nov 22, 2006 16:51 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

Not all behavior is exposed to the user. You won't tell a Linux kernel with RCU from the one without RCU except by comparing their performance.

Patents Don't Apply to Source Code

Posted Nov 22, 2006 17:24 UTC (Wed) by HenrikH (guest, #31152) [Link]

True, but then a propietary company has to tell everyone that they have RCU since they need to make a selling point ;-)

Patents Don't Apply to Source Code

Posted Nov 22, 2006 20:54 UTC (Wed) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

Patents apply to behavior, not source code.

Patents apply to the use of concepts or ideas. As noted by others, this may or may not be apparent without seeing the source code.

Patents Don't Apply to Source Code

Posted Nov 30, 2006 18:45 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link]

Patents apply to behavior, not concepts or ideas. Clever lawyers have succeeded with patent applications for increasingly abstract things, but the patents still apply only to some process that implements an idea and not the idea itself.

Microsoft and other vendors of proprietary software are regularly found guilty of patent infringement without the benefit of source code. RCU is mentioned above, but this is by definition a behavior that can be observed.