Patents: Newsforge:
Patents in an open source world, by Lawrence Rosen (founding partner
of Rosenlaw and Einschlag).
Interesting article, but I’m not sure summary point number 2 (’continue to
document our own “prior art” to prevent others from patenting things
they weren’t the first to invent’) really helps, when the patent examiners
clearly haven’t performed the simplest Google check. I’ve found obvious
prior art in 30 seconds, by plugging 3 words from patent claims into
Google in the past (and yes, I have a reasonable idea how to read
patent claims by now).
Point number 3 is interesting, since it contradicts most other advice I’ve
read regarding patent searches: ‘Conduct a reasonably diligent search for
patents we might infringe. At least search the portfolios of our major
competitors. (This, by the way, is also a great way to make sure we’re
aware of important technology advances by our competitors.) Maintain a
commercially reasonable balance between doing nothing about patents and
being obsessed with reviewing every one of them.’
However, this
comment really is interesting and raises something major that I’d
never heard of before — users of proprietary software can also face a
significant risk from the patent threat. In particular, according to the
linked comment, Microsoft licensed some patented technology from a company
called Timeline Inc., but the license was not sublicenseable — in other
words, it did not grant their customers the rights to fully use the
technology! (in fairness to MS, this was established later in court.)
Result:
href=”http://trends.newsforge.com/comments.pl?sid=39443&cid=96153″>MS SQL
server OEMs and ISVs are now being sued.
Tags: art, comment, google, newsforge, number, patent, patents, point, search, technology, way
