On Oct 3, 2009, at 10:24 PM, russell standish wrote:
On Sat, Oct 03, 2009 at 07:07:00PM -0700, Miles Parker wrote:
IANAL of course, but in general this situation is no different
form one
where ay someone has an idea, tells it to someone else, and that
someone
else writes a book about it. Ideas can't be copyrighted but
software can;
and implementations of ideas can be patented. (Yuck, though..) Am
I right
No - only the ideas can be patented. The whole software patent brouha
revolves around people patenting fairly obvious software algorithms
for marginally novel uses. But it is not the software itself that is
patented - if I write a piece of software that implements someone
patented algorithm, then I am potentially infringing that patent,
regardless of whether I even know the patent existed.
Poorly worded. What I *meant* to say was that ideas can only be
patented if one can demonstrate a potential (even if virtual)
implementation and use. IOTW Einstein couldn't patent relativity and
then claim rights to nuclear energy. If he designed the basic schema
for a nuclear power plant then he could.
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