-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 24/05/2015 21:54, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>At least in the open source community, let's please take advantage of this relief provided us by the CAFC in Seagate. Open source engineers should be free to read and write whatever they want about patents. It can't hurt. For programmers, the issue is when the final, limiting clause of the patent ^1 is akin to the following: «It should be understood that the routines, steps, processes, or operations described herein may represent any module or code sequence that can be implemented in software or firmware. In this regard, these modules and code sequences can include commands or instructions for executing the specific logical routines, steps, processes, or operations within physical components. It should further be understood that two or more of the routines, steps, processes, and/or operations described herein may be executed substantially simultaneously or in a different order than explicitly described, as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. ... It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments are merely possible examples of implementations, merely set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the present disclosure. Any process descriptions or blocks in flow diagrams should be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process, and alternate implementations are included in which functions may not be included or executed at all, may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the present disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the present disclosure. Further, the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover any and all combinations and sub-combinations of all elements, features, and aspects discussed above. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of the present disclosure, and all possible claims to individual aspects or combinations of elements or steps are intended to be supported by the present disclosure. » In as much as I've come across at least half a dozen patents, whose final clause is what I consider to be a very close paraphrase of that wording, especially the last two or three sentences, the only thing that Seagate does, is imply that any alleged infringement might not meet the requirements for "willful infringement", and hence not subject to triple damages. It still doesn't protect the programmer who implements something, without having a clue that the USPTO granted a patent on something that is vaguely similar to what was implemented, and hence, potentially infringing on a patent whose final, limiting clause, is the overarching reach of the last five sentences from the patent that I quoted here. ^1: For some dumb reason, I didn't write down the patent number this specific example came from. (In the blog in which I rant against this specific patent, I list four or five patent numbers of other things that I consider to be non-inventions, but the USPTO duly granted a patent on. ) I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. I'm only the guy who has been threatened with lawsuits for patent violations, copyright violations, and other intellectual property violations, by parties who have never seen the allegedly infringing vapourware. jonathon -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJVZn/dAAoJEE1PKy9+kxpl+mIP/2UwUc7q3fUBZ1CO/sxJl0y/ yedXxLqyz026GMtL8imdzm8vCCLCPtQTPwZP+9aGCOZBFhpqa2OufO6b7iaoGatD O4Df1IifEcfv1e19y/awZ5X9QNO9bNJdIOEyobfnPSpLRAFxv9F1i/Ppv6gPKHfo X948rrtn+1ls1DYAcAHQCITYnY+mPzCqd4/cj53VcvgfgKE6aKNkYZxHO4Aj8ga/ FT6kGXyCtYsTPiv392CiBnP5I5I7SAMVBfHZsaYF4fJGPnpR5ado/j/t3kxSBTWq tTtmTUot1gyY9NLfnp4nJbJWq+2CJwjSTxEuwLus2P8pjiexUKXKLKApS9hl1VJF gsRDdz4Qd079nO25YchysObWIAk1b1vUg3N/yHkXW+CM+13NRxVUkiL9o2MKNwSx qHol4fnXo2VLesWK/QWz4agcgZ/zU3UMpk3En2qtJU5ach7QnoqaZOgZUmRHReQA APAN35cLXFeMqcQUMV3iOmE32CAi9H6n+HOj+Gut79WndVdTQPH4fVLlM0QleL9b ivx32vuIZHyMvhUkr8vJlUxCgpqklgmdRcZ98SAz9F/4s2i6J+TRVKKZq5lo/j2g Oa3aCzsEcHeKKVLKInIzOj7p3q41tyTHcAeqNWgrEAf3jV7ApTicuVp0qqJQhDa4 C6RFfmsOj3/lQiJaGJNy =lJVS -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss