- From: Gareth Hay <gazhay@gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:59:53 +0000
Hi Christian, My main concern is simply to avoid the issue altogether. I do agree that patents exist and have been granted, but I just can't see how they are ever going to be enforced at all. For example, a patent issued in the US is infringed by a UK company, where the patent would not be held up by current UK law, (or worse *may* be valid in the UK but not under EU law), where is the case heard? Who's law applies? I know this is a trivial example, but I would just prefer to not have to feed a lawyer's pockets over this issue. Gareth On 23 Mar 2007, at 11:49, Christian F.K. Schaller wrote: > Hi Gareth, > This is a strange way of looking at the issue. Once a patent is > granted > it is by definition valid and enforceable. It is the people > opposing it > who have to prove their non-legality at that point and not the > other way > around. So sure a lot of software patents might be challenged around > Europe, but the main burden of proving they are non-valid falls on the > people opposing the patent and not the patent holder. So until someone > have successfully challenged all the patents involved and gotten them > found invalid they are by definition valid. A granted patent is valid > until a court of law finds it invalid, not invalid until a court of > law > finds it valid. > > Be aware that I do not support the idea of software patents, not in > the > slightest, but one have to accept that in many places around the world > they are 'the law of the land'. One should work to change the law, not > pretend it doesn't exist. > > Christian > > On Fri, 2007-03-23 at 10:30 +0000, Gareth Hay wrote: >> As i said in a previous post, this is a very grey area.[1][2] >> >> So much so that many of the granted patents are being opposed, and >> until the outcome of these oppositions, neither one of us can comment >> on the true legality of them. >> >> I would suggest backing away from any such areas where software >> patentability becomes an issue. Case law hasn't sufficiently >> established the legality in my country, europe and many, many >> territories. >> >> [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents#In_Europe >> [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ >> Software_patents_under_the_European_Patent_Convention#Inventive_step_ >> tes >> t >> >> On 23 Mar 2007, at 10:02, Christian F.K. Schaller wrote: >> >>> It is an Urban Legend that there are no software patents in the EU. >>> True >>> enough there is no 'EU' software patents, but a lot of member >>> states do >>> have them. I suggest going the MPEG LA's webpage and looking at the >>> patent lists they have there for MPEG4. You will notice that a >>> lot of >>> the patents are from EU countries. >>> >>> Christian >>> >>> >>> On Fri, 2007-03-23 at 08:35 +0000, Gareth Hay wrote: >>>> Not in the EU, no such thing as a software patent. >>>> >>>> On 23 Mar 2007, at 04:55, Ian Hickson wrote: >>>> >>>>> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007, Robert Sayre wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> MPEG-4 is proprietary, because it is covered by patents. >>>>> >>>>> I hate to be the one to break this to you, but CSS is covered by >>>>> patents, >>>>> HTML is covered by patents, the DOM is covered by patents, >>>>> JavaScript is >>>>> covered by patents, and so forth. Proprietary technologies are >>>>> those that >>>>> are under the control of a single vendor. MPEG-4 is not >>>>> proprietary. >>>>> >>>>> It's not available under royalty free licensing. But it is not >>>>> under the >>>>> control of a single vendor. That is the important difference, not >>>>> whether >>>>> the technology is patented or not. >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Ian Hickson U+1047E ) >>>>> \._.,--....,'``. fL >>>>> http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _ >>>>> \ ;`._ ,. >>>>> Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'-- >>>>> (,_..'`-.;.' >>> -- >>> Business Development Manager >>> Fluendo S.A. >>> Office Phone: +34 933175153 >>> Mobile Phone: +34 678608328 >>> > -- > Business Development Manager > Fluendo S.A. > Office Phone: +34 933175153 > Mobile Phone: +34 678608328 >
Received on Friday, 23 March 2007 04:59:53 UTC