The attachment pdf which presents an abstract of a purported patent application does broadcast a message that puts everyone on notice, so this post does not depart from the content of the party who initiated the thread.
Perhaps these are unique uses of a scripting language for presentation and translating, along with other tools and standards for transport. This stuff is "hard work" and it remains to be seen whether such design is patentable, but the actual code certainly deserves copyright protection for the specifics that carry out one rendition of the duties.
It would be helpful if REMITT folks would indicate WHEN they filed for a patent and whether they opted to NOT have their application published. None show up on USPTO application search for Valier or Buchbinder.
I mention the "opt out" because there are only limited means for society's interested citizens to place comment into the functional "discovery" of "prior art" which is to be considered in the course of a patent examination. When an application opts to be "unpublished" such 3rd party submissions of "prior art" references can only depend on general description or other hints about the "capability" of a given product (or software). This is the sense in which patent grants are a fundamentally "closed source" process, only partially remedied when the applicant acquiesces to publication in the PTO or makes an effort to publish detail outside of the patent application or when the "history" of the patent file becomes "public". The finally issued patent ideally embodies "open source" which is understandable by all (in theory). This occurs in exchange for being endowed with a special property status that is more easily prosecuted against a presumed infringer. Everything hinges on whether what is granted has been well founded.
For another example: Here is a business concerned with processing EDI data which uses an open source/service model and copyright with no obvious mention of patenting as its mode of protection for "hard work" accomplished.
http://www.americancoders.com/OpenBusinessObjects/
This is not to say that there is no place for patents in software or business process. I do believe that the patent as the vehicle for every thing that can be diagrammed in business affairs or everything which appears to be novel in pseudocode .... is of marginal benefit to society and "most" businesses depending and expending on it. This era certainly means that anyone doing the "hard work" of a business or writing software will have to work harder ...learning more than you ever intended to know
about the work of others.
Rusty Maynard
Maury Pepper wrote:
Bhaskar,
It's explained here: (... sort of)
http://www.remitt.org/license.html
Not clear what restrictions the patent imposes except, perhaps, to prevent others from restricting this technology by patenting it.
----- Original Message ----- From: "K.S. Bhaskar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] REMITT Medical Billing System (Open Source)
Dr. Valier --
I am a little confused. Could you clarify, please, what it means to have open source software that is patented? Does that mean that anyone can read the software but only you can make changes? Thank you very much, in advance.
-- Bhaskar
On Wed, 2004-11-10 at 13:33, Franklin Valier wrote:
Dear Hardhats:
We have received a number of inquiries regarding the ability of REMITT
Billing System to work with Vista A. In short, yes, assuming a
plug-in interface is developed for Vista A. I have attached an
abstract and flow chart to provide some information for you. If there
are any other questions you may have, please contact us.
Frank M. Valier, Ph.D.
IT Scientist & General Manager FreeMED MA, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T: (413) 734-9985 F: (413) 734-0966 www.remitt.org
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