End Software Patents collecting names of on-the-fence decision makers
Sending it to people firmly on one side or the other won't do anything, so Gates and Stallman won't get a copy, but who are the politicians, company decision makers, professors, and organisation representatives who either haven't taken a stance, or who lean in our direction and might do some internal lobbying if they got some encouragement?"
Posted May 27, 2010 13:29 UTC (Thu)
by etienne (guest, #25256)
[Link]
Now, let's talk about coffe machine.
End Software Patents collecting names of on-the-fence decision makers
I have a hard-disk on my PC (maybe I am not alone).
The sticker on that hard disk is covered with pattent numbers, I assumes that those pattents are all used inside this hard disk.
Now, do I have the right to save a file on this hard disk?
I mean, without paying royalties to all those listed pattent holders first - which would mean first finding them.
Well, maybe I have a license to use those pattents given when I bought the hard disk - but maybe not: I do not have a single document to prove it.
What happens if someone send me a pattent infringement claim that I use a pattented method to store data on a magnetic surface?
I cannot claim that I do not do it, and cannot pay the kind of money http://en.swpat.org/wiki/ is talking of, for past infrigement.
Do the hard disk manufacturer give me a protection against unknown pattents?
How many pattented technologies they are using?
Am I covered by a pattent protection scheme?
Am I legally allowed to use mine to make a coffe?