Hello, On 02/27/2012 05:58 PM, Alan R Williams wrote: > We (the myGrid team at Manchester) have had an e-mail from the Open > Invention Network - http://www.openinventionnetwork.com . > > I'm seeking other people's opinion about if the patent portfolio > initiative is a good thing and whether it is necessary.
Debian has just issued its stance on patents http://www.debian.org/legal/patent There I found a pointer to http://www.softwarefreedom.org/ who may be a good address to ask about the OIN and the effect it or patents in general may have on your development. The core of Debian is indeed creative in its package management and the associated infrastructure. The outer parts like Debian Med I see less effected who we mostly package what others have invented. What may be good though are all the time stamps that come with a package, so discussions about prior art may be helped now and then. When the Taverna<->Debian interplay progresses beyond our current prototype state and we happen to create creative solutions for problems in computational biology by some novel interplay of tools, then this is not patentable in Germany. It may be an issue for the US, though. Are there indisputable time stamps with workflows submitted to myExperiment? So, at the moment I do not care too much, but, well, maybe I should. Tell me :o) Steffen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
