On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 10:57, Michael Scherer <[email protected]> wrote: > Le vendredi 18 février 2011 à 10:13 +0100, Philippe DIDIER a écrit : >> Just seen that mikala added panotools in the repository . (some >> algorythms library to build panoramic photographs) >> Very happy with this ! (thanks a lot...) >> >> That's one of the first patent problems we may encounter :
Yes, that's a good sample to use to improve our policy draft. >> Long time ago, How long is a "long time ago"? because every patent has a term and here it may have expired. >> iPIX, a company from USA muliplied patent lawsuit against >> these free algorythms inventor and photographers using them (this >> company is now dead because of bankruptcy but the patent problem is >> still live... ) > > Well, who own the patents now ? >From http://wiki.panotools.org/Ipix it looks a former competitor got a hold on all assets from iPix. On the decision/sorting out side, for this and for any other patent issue, do we document already (in source code or a separate file) the reasons to activate or not pieces of a software (or to exclude them from packages), because of some patents? List of questions to check would be at least: - what is exactly covered by what patent (reference, registration, territory/ies for which it has been registered)? - where is it implemented exactly in the source code? ( - who owns this patent? - did the patent holder announce his clear intention upon it? (that is, is he using it to control/restrain use or not? *) - are there obvious prior art that could make this patent obviously invalid? - what is decided and when (and what may change the decision, later)? - what would be alternative ways to implement the function (if the patent does not just cover the function, but a specific implementation of it)? * one does not necessarily register a patent to be offensive with it; here, we knew about iPix, what about the new holder? Btw, a draft policy for patents management was discussed among founders and other people (lawyers) months ago and a tentative summary written by me here: http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=software_patents_policy . Cheers, Romain
