Paul Preziosi wrote: > "Roeland M.J. Meyer" wrote: > > > > I think I mis-read your original question. For some reason I read > > "unusable", sorry. Yes, the lapse of a patent means the technology > > becomes available for all to use, freely. This is my understanding. > > The idea behind patents is kind of contract: > > - The government grants a legal protection to the registrant, > for a given time period, > > - In return, the registrant releases it's technology to public > domain at the end of this time period. This is the spirit. Another aspect of the system is, details of the technology must be public, even during the patent's validity (during which the governments grants the creator a right to charge people for using the technology even when they do it without the creator's help). This is to optimize the balance between compensation to the creator and spreading the benefits of the technology. But then there's the Dark Side of the Force... (correct me if I'm wrong about the facts) The NSA bullied the patent agencies into accepting a monstrosity called a "blind patent", in which the NSA creates a technology, files its details to the patent agency which is not allowed to make it public (perversion #1), and if someone manages to build up something similar from scratch - effectively reinventing it with all merits - the document pops up and the patent is enforced (perversion #2). Worse, the expiration clock start to tick at THAT moment, not when the original paper was filed (perversion #3). Is it really how things happen? I find it hard to believe.
begin:vcard n:Castro;Juan tel;work:540-9100 Ramal 46 x-mozilla-html:FALSE url:http://www.appi.com.br/jcastro org:APPI Informática;Desenvolvimento adr:;;Av. Ataulfo de Paiva, 135/1410 - Leblon;Rio de Janeiro;RJ;22499-900;Brasil version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:Consultor note;quoted-printable:One man alone cannot fight the future. USE LINUX!=0D=0A=0D=0A -- The X Racer=0D=0A=0D=0APGP Key ID 0xAAE4050C=0D=0A fn:Juan Carlos Castro y Castro end:vcard
