Romain d'Alverny a écrit :
Le 13 déc. 2010 à 13:50, Philippe DIDIER<[email protected]> a écrit :
The creator of a software can be prosecuted on the basis of patents even
if they were registered later !!!!
Of course, nothing new here.
That does not, however, prove that the motive of the prosecution (hence the
prosecution itself) is valid.
Because of unprecise/unvalid registration, prior art, fuzzy/broken status of
software patents in the EU, or other reason that would have to be demonstrated
during a trial.
So whatever you do, as soon as you publish/release some "hot" technology, you
have to be aware of the environment; it is a matter of risk management, and of
provisioning the means for such a trial (legal counselling, money, communication,
disclosure), should it happen (that is, should it be reasonably worth it for someone to
initiate).
Cheers,
Romain
An additional problem with patents, which are supposed to protect
techniques or methods developped by the patenter, it that they are
issued after searches for conflicting patents, but not after verifying
the existance of prior art, or even that the technique/method actually
works.
(At least that is how it works in the U.S./Canada.)
Patents are not supposed to cover logic as such.
Which becomes problematic with software, which is basically logic
fashioned into algorithms, to accomplish some task.
Which is why countries such as Canada don't issue patents for software.
And why most software patents will not be enforceable, even where they
do exist.
Note also that even an enforceable software patent only gives the patent
holder a civil right to demand compensation for the use of the methods
of the patent. A patent holder is not required to demand such
compensation, and in many cases, it will not be in their interest to do so.
Such as free/open source software where there is no opportunity to
collect royalties, and where engaging pursuits against such usage will
likely lead to the development of alternate solutions, which lessen the
chance of collecting royalties from other users.
my 2 cents :)
André
