Red Hat CEO decries software patents

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What's wrong with copying ?

You can't take someone elses patent and use it without permssion. As long as the patent is valid then you're busted.

Now, for a patent to be valid it needs to be Original and Non-Obvious. That is the dilemna for most software patents. If more than one person comes up with the idea independently, then it fails the definition "non-obvious".

We now see that merely adding to an existing product is not enough to make a new product "original". In most cases it that also should fail the non-obvious test.

It's tough to blame the Patent Office, how could they be expected to know everything about everything, but they continue to issue some really stupid patents. And companies continue to pursue patenting some really wrong ideas.

So, if the patent is valid. Don't copy. If the patent is invalid, copy away Microsoft needs to let the world know what patents have been infringed. If they are valid, the world should stop using them. If they're invalid, oh well.

Posted by: magcomment   Posted on: 05/23/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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