Mark Webbink On: Software Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| This week Mark Webbink, former Red Hat General Counsel discusses software
| patents, their absurdity and the business climate and “judicial activism”
| that helped create them.
`----
http://truthhappens.redhatmagazine.com/2007/10/19/mark-webbink-on-software-patents/
(Mis)understandings of the words “intellectual property”
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| Then there’s the Lone Cypress, a tree along California’s famous 17-Mile
| Drive. It’s probably the most infamous example of someone trying to exert
| ridiculous intellectual property rights. They must’ve made it sound like a
| good idea, though, because it seems that the idea of copyrighting trees is
| catching on.
`----
http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/10/19/misunderstandings-of-the-words-%e2%80%9cintellectual-property%e2%80%9d/
Related:
Can developers reclaim donated IP?
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| I asked Richard E. Fontana, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Center,
| three basic questions about intellectual property in the free software world,
| based on a hypothetical situation in which I have written and distributed an
| application, licensed under the GPL, and now wish to transfer my IP to
| others.
`----
http://www.linux.com/feature/118713
A Patent Lie
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| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
,----[ Quote ]
| ...Thanks to Mr. Gates, we now know that an open Internet with protocols
| anyone can implement is communism...
|
| ...Mr. Gates' secret is out now--he too was a "communist;" he, too,
| recognized that software patents were harmful-until Microsoft
| became one of these giants...
`----
http://news.com.com/Bill+Gates+and+other+communists/2010-1071_3-5576230.html?part=rss&tag=5575731&subj=news.1071.20
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
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| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
Ethics @ Work: Are property rights in ideas unethical?
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| Business ethics usually have little to do with ethics. In most practical
| cases the ethical value is agreed upon, and the ethics professional is
| charged with making sure they are reflected in practice. However,
| occasionally we are privileged to encounter a truly innovative ethical
| doctrine that seeks to challenge existing paradigms. A fascinating example is
| the "free content" movement, often identified with programming pioneer
| Richard Stallman who leads the related "free software movement."
`----
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1184168552105&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
If you thought software patents were bad...
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| Instead, he's talking about what amounts to the instructions for making a
| specific movie: a script.
|
| A script defines the appearance of sets, lines for actors to read, camera
| angles and lighting to be used during the production, and a specific sequence
| of scenes that express a story. By any reasonable standard, a script is a
| description of a process. It seems to meet the requirements of 35 USC 101:
| it's new (in the sense of being original or novel), and it's useful because
| it tells us how to make a movie.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9744783-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Critic of Software Patents Wins Nobel Prize in Economics
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| doom writes "You've probably already heard that the Nobel Prize
| for Economics was given to three gents who were working on advances
| in mechanism design theory. What you may not have heard is what one
| of those recipients was using that theory to study: 'One recent
| subject of Professor Maskin's wide-ranging research has been on the
| value of software patents. He determined that software was a market
| where innovations tended to be sequential, in that they were built
| closely on the work of predecessors, and innovators could take many
| different paths to the same goal. In such markets, he said, patents
| might serve as a wall that inhibited innovation rather than
| stimulating progress.' Here's one of Maskin's papers on the
| subject: Sequential Innovation, Patents, limitation (pdf).
`----
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotYourRightsOnline/~3/170631743/article.pl
EFF lawyer warns of e-learning patent dangers
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| Although Blackboard has publicly pledged not to enforce its patent
| against open-source software distributors, universities, or
| non-commercial entities, there are many gray areas that make it
| difficult to guess what is permissible and what is not. For
| instance, Schultz points out that the pledge allows Blackboard
| to sue proprietary software vendors that incorporate open-source
| software components into their offerings.
|
| Comparing Blackboard to "a schoolyard bully who holds a huge club
| over your head and promises not to hit you as long as you don't
| play with certain other kids on the playground," Schultz believes
| that Blackboard's pledge is "a nice gesture" but lacks the efficacy
| and legal significance of an official royalty-free patent license.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070408-eff-lawyer-warns-of-e-learning-patent-dangers.html
http://tinyurl.com/26nko9
Analysis: Less patent shield for code
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| Clearing the way for wider worldwide distribution of computer
| software code, and saving Microsoft Corp. millions of dollars in patent
| damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that it is not illegal to send
| Windows code abroad for copying and installing in foreign-made computers,
| even if the code incorporates a part of someone else's patented invention.
`----
http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2007/04/analysis_less_p.html
Supreme Court to Patent Appeals Court: Drop Dead
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| Then the justices cupped their hands astride their mouths and
| shouted in unison: Fewer patents!
`----
http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.com/2007/05/01/supreme-court-to-patent-appeals-court-drop-dead/
http://tinyurl.com/23lwp9
Patently wrong
,----[ Quote ]
| Every schoolyard has a bully who uses his size to intimidate the
| other kids, or a rich brat who threatens to take his ball home if
| he doesn't get his way.
`----
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_may22_2007
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