That's what I thought! Thanks for clarifying that! Leonard
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:21 AM To: Leonard Rosenthol Cc: Cirilo Bernardo; [email protected] Subject: Re: [pdf-devel] 3D in pdf - any plans? Hi Leonard. Is that comment below concerning patents & GPL really true? I certainly understand issues around existing FOSS SOURCE code and the GPL, but I've never heard ANYONE ever say that a GPL-licensed product can't implement something that is patented. Certainly, one would want to ensure that the licensing for said patent is granted (free, RAND, etc.) - but just having a patent doesn't violate the GPL, does it?!?! You can implement patented technologies and distribute the code under the GPLv3 as long as the owner of the patent has granted a world-wide royalty-free license to use the patented technology. Same situation as with the GPLv2. The GPLv3 disposition about patents only applies if the owner of the patent is also a _contributor_ of the software. From the GPLv3: A “contributor” is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based. The work thus licensed is called the contributor's “contributor version”. A contributor's “essential patent claims” are all patent claims owned or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version, but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a consequence of further modification of the contributor version. For purposes of this definition, “control” includes the right to grant patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License. Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of its contributor version. So, for example, If I get a GPLv3 licensed software and add a new functionality covered by a patent that I own, I would need to give a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use my patent to the users of the GPLv3 work. I am concerned about the truth/validity of this statement, because Adobe holds standing patents on many parts of PDF that are "core" to the technology (both in the file format and in the rendering model) that it licenses royalty-free for the purposes of supporting PDF (See <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/support/topic_legal_notices. html>) and I would hate to see this project's progress hindered. Looking forward to clarification. Thanks in advance! Fortunately we can use your royalty-free licenses in order to implement PDF support under the GPLv3 :) Hope this help. -- Jose E. Marchesi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> GNU Project http://www.gnu.org GNU Spain http://es.gnu.org
