Hi,
On 08/22/2010 11:56 AM, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
I meant to paste:
http://www.defensivepublications.org/
That too is part of the Open Invention Network mentioned in my last
post.
aha - so you *can* do business in the US without getting patents!
Well, yes, you can. The ugly thing about patents is although you can run a
business without getting patents, you can't become too big or too threatening to
someone who does own patents.
The only reason these days patents are used is to arm-twist potential
competition (I don't even need to supply references, look at almost any patent
suit in the recent past, it is initiated by patent trolls or direct competition
is a masked manner).
The other part of course is if, (like IBM, Novell and the other members of OIN)
you already have patents, it is best to release them to the community or make a
patent promise using something like OIN.
Correct me if I am wrong - the objective of patenting something (or
defensively publishing it) is to prevent someone else from patenting
your idea and then suing you for using your own idea. The objective is
*not* for the purpose of preventing other people from using your
idea/invention. right?
Yes.
Defensive patenting is to create a patent on something so that you can protect
yourself from being sued.
Defensive publication is publication of an idea so that later on if someone
tries to patent the idea, you can point to your publication to say the idea is
'prior art' (and as such not patentable).
Red Hat practices both because it has to protect the trust of all it's
supporters and has too much at stake to take put itself in a vulnerable position
to legal attacks by as not doing so.
cheers,
- steve
--
random spiel: http://lonetwin.net/
what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/
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