2005-09-02 Patents

More software patents madness:

One day after revealing that it had been granted a patent for the user interface of its Creative Zen MP3 player, Creative accused Apple of violating said patent. ¹

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​#Patents

Comments

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Reading your page I conclude you mind patents. If you want to break patents you should create an idea page that is set up in a way that the ideas it contains qualify as prior art. Everybody that has an idea can put it there. From then on the idea was published and can not be patented anymore. I guess if you could attract enough people with ideas you can block many many patents

– gonzo 2005-09-05 07:02 UTC

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When I proposed something like this to RichardStallman, he said that it was a nice idea if somebody else wanted to do it, but he felt that fighting against Patents *per se* would be an even better use of our time. I heard that some people have taken up similar ideas, however. They are collecting software patents donated by big companies to free software, and they are also collecting other ideas for use as prior art.

The reason that this solution is not perfect is simple: You as a developer can *still* be sued for patent infringement, and then you need time and money to defend yourself (and prove prior art, for example). This is a big obstacle.

– Alex Schroeder 2005-09-05 11:30 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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FSF moots patent retaliation clause for next GPL, article from “The Register”

FSF moots patent retaliation clause for next GPL

– PierreGaston 2005-09-07 11:00 UTC