If any of you are interested in such topics check out: http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/patents.html
and http://www.freepatents.org (Richard Stallman's site) Cheers! Rob -----Original Message----- From: Robert Koberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 12:51 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: axkit and patents (fwd) maybe apache could use the aclu to splatter patents on little cogs in the wheel??? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Finneran" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 12:42 PM Subject: RE: axkit and patents (fwd) > FYI: > > >From an article in "Think" magazine, #5, 1990. > > "You get value from patents in two ways," says Roger Smith, IBM > Assistant General Counsel, intellectual property law. "Through fees, > and through licensing negotiations that give IBM access to other > patents. > > "The IBM patent portfolio gains us the freedom to do what we need to > do through cross-licensing--it gives us access to the inventions of > others that are the key to rapid innovation. Access is far more > valuable to IBM than the fees it receives from its 9,000 active > patents. There's no direct calculation of this value, but it's many > times larger than the fee income, perhaps an order of magnitude > larger." > > This article should dispell the idea that the patent system will > "protect" a small software developer from competition from IBM. IBM > can always find patents in its collection which the small developer is > infringing, and thus obtain a cross-license. > > However, the patent system does cause trouble for the smaller > companies which, like IBM, need access to patented techniques in order > to do useful work in software. Unlike IBM, the smaller companies do > not have 9,000 patents and cannot usually get a cross-license. No > matter how hard they try, they cannot amass enough patents to defend > themselves. > > How much trouble do patents typically cause? The value IBM gets from > cross-licensing measures the trouble that the patent system would > cause IBM if IBM could not avoid it. IBM's estimate is that the > trouble could easily be ten times the good one can expect from one's > own patents--even for a company with 9,000 of them. > > For IBM, this trouble is hypothetical--cross-licensing prevents it > from happening. For ordinary companies which cannot do likewise, the > burden is real. IBM's estimate suggests that for a typical software > company, patents will do ten times as much harm as good. Only the > elimination of patents from the software field can enable most > software developers to continue with their work. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Finneran [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 12:17 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: axkit and patents (fwd) > > > Hello, > > I think the tech community needs to take a stand against this kind of > outrageous behavior. I cannot believe that Sun does not understand that this > patent application is just plain wrong. I don't even have to explain why > this is wrong, just read the text of it. > > The worse part is that those idiots over in the patent office are likely to > approve the patent. Making patent mistakes helps evolve patent law. The > trouble is, challenging a patent usually costs millions of dollars. It's a > game only rich companies can play. > > Someday I hope that software engineers wake up to the threat of their > freedom. Soon the only protection you will have against this sort of abuse > of the free market system is to only work for major corporations who can > afford to play in this arena. They cross-license each other's patents to > create oligopolies that can "legally" restrain free trade. Independent > software companies without vast patent portfolios of their own will not have > anything to trade in settlement negotiations. > > Is this simply a paranoid view of our trade? I think not. Look at the > evidence. > > Rob > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Matt Sergeant [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 11:50 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: axkit and patents (fwd) > > > Looks like Sun are trying to Patent what AxKit and Cocoon can do. We need > to make sure the patent office knows of the prior art on this. Do we have > people who do that sort of thing? > > -- > <!-- Matt --> > <:->Get a smart net</:-> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:39:30 +0000 > From: Sebastian Rahtz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: axkit and patents > > have y'all seen this arrant nonsense from Sun? > http://l2.espacenet.com/dips/viewer?PN=WO0163481&CY=ep&LG=en&DB=EPD > describes a patent application which is a trivial AxKit > operation..... > -- > Sebastian Rahtz OUCS Information Manager > 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
