Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 29th Jul 2012 10:48 UTC
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In the US at least, software patents exist - it is the law of the land. There have been quite a few cases where patented code was found in open source software and the patent holder sued successfully and won. A few of them even involve Linux and other very high profile OSS projects. Happens all the time.
Oh, don't get me started on US law, and US patent law in particular. It is a huge pathology which tries to spread on the whole earth. It is unreasonable, it favors huge corporations, it allow existence od software patent trolls, it ruins creativity and it is generally way beyond its primary purpose.
People used to talk about OSS projects, just like they want to avoid FLOSS projects. People who support patent system tend to focus on OSS, others [who prefer freedom] focus on FREEDOM, also a freedom from patents.
US does recognize software patents, but I've read that it's the EU that recognizes "design patents", of the sort that Apple is enforcing.
Also, I think individual EU countries recognize some software patents (Motorola's demands for 4 billion dollars a year to license four H.264 patents have been made and recognized in Germany, not the US).





Member since:
2006-01-25
"Just because something is F/OSS doesn't make it free from software-patents.
I can't understand how can you write such stuff. It would actualy mean you don't know the whole Free Software ecosystem. Closed source is all about the patents. Free Software is all about anti-patent system. "
It doesn't matter "what it is about". I don't think you understand what was meant here... I myself am totally against software patents - but I cannot stick my fingers in my ears and chant la-la-la and magically make the patent system disappear.
In the US at least, software patents exist - it is the law of the land. There have been quite a few cases where patented code was found in open source software and the patent holder sued successfully and won. A few of them even involve Linux and other very high profile OSS projects. Happens all the time.
I'm not saying it is right, or that I agree with it... But saying that something being OSS makes it free of patents is completely naive.
Its practically impossible to make a software product that goes beyond trivial functionality and doesn't violate an existing patent - that is the whole damn problem... You can't "intend" to be patent free, you either are or aren't - and unless you hired lawyers and spent many thousands of dollars doing a clearance of the code you have more than likely violated a patent.
Ironically, the only real way to prove your code is free of other peoples patents is to patent it yourself. And thus we all go spinning down the rabbit hole...
Edited 2012-07-29 17:31 UTC