Evan Langlois wrote:
On Thu, 2005-12-01 at 20:39 +0100, Alexander Staubo wrote:
It appears that HP "has patents pending on the Judy Technology",
according to this document:
You can have patented GPL/LGPL code. In fact, the Linux kernel itself
has patented code in it.
That's not the issue; the fact that it is patented is not a problem in
itself. It is a problem, however, if HP decides to enforce the patent.
This affects code in several ways:
(1) The Judy implementationitself: The patent owner should not impose
royalty restrictions on the use, development or distribution of the Judy
implementation.
(2) Ditto for any code that links to the Judy implementation.
(3) Reimplementations of the Judy algorithm. I should be allowed to
reimplement it in other languages, for example.
Since its already released as LGPL, I think you are safe. A patent
would prevent another company from using the algorithm and claiming
their own patent without a GPL compatible license attached, so I see the
HP patent as a good thing.
As far as I can see, the GPL/LGPL does not protect against patents in
any way.
The LGPL merely states that the LGPL applies even in the face of "a
court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other
reason (not limited to patent issues)". From section 11 of the LGPL:
"For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
redistribution of the Library by all those who receive copies
directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could
satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely
from distribution of the Library."
Alexander.
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