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All patents are theft
Linux User & Developer ^ | 25 October 2011 | Richard Hillesley

Posted on 10/26/2011 7:30:09 AM PDT by ShadowAce

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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I agree patents on genetic sequences, and especially those that already exist in nature, are wrong. But that is a failure of the patent examiner - patents are not supposed to be granted for prior art, and existing natural genetic sequences would be just that.

Likewise, a lot of the failings with IT sector patents are granted for failure to recognize prior art.

41 posted on 10/26/2011 8:53:08 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: douginthearmy
Linux is not Unix.

It is POSIX-compliant. Much different, though it makes the two systems look similar.

42 posted on 10/26/2011 8:55:34 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce

I don’t think patents are necessarily theft (though they can be). I just think they are pretty much unenforceable anymore unless you are a huge corporation. Building your business model solely on the hope of enforcing your patent is pretty risky.


43 posted on 10/26/2011 8:59:21 AM PDT by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: advertising guy

How did you manage to pay $5K to the Patent Office?


44 posted on 10/26/2011 9:02:17 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: ShadowAce

Well understood but my point was if patents are theft what “crime” is it to intentionally deprive the world of ones discovery/development by keeping it a secret?


45 posted on 10/26/2011 9:05:15 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing an idiot)
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To: muir_redwoods

Ahh—gotcha. I totally misunderstood your post, then.


46 posted on 10/26/2011 9:09:11 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: BwanaNdege

I didn;t the patent attorney did


47 posted on 10/26/2011 9:20:41 AM PDT by advertising guy (dammit)
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To: The Mayor
"http://www.nolo.com/products/patent-it-yourself-PAT.html"

Affordable, comprehensive and highly recommended book.

A "Preliminary Patent Application" gets you one year of "Patent Pending " protection an cost $75 last time I checked. Initial filing fee was about $750.

A patent attorney will charge you an bundle. You can either do your own online patent search, or hire a professional searcher for far less thatnthe attorney will charge you for the searchers fee.

Lots of "Patent it Yourself" software out there also.

48 posted on 10/26/2011 9:23:19 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: BwanaNdege

the claims are the broad strokes of intellectual property

doin my own patent is like removing my own appendix myself

no chance


49 posted on 10/26/2011 9:30:16 AM PDT by advertising guy (dammit)
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To: advertising guy

“I didn’t the patent attorney did”

Here is the Fee Schedule, in case you want to check your attorney’s itemized bill to you.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee092611.htm


50 posted on 10/26/2011 9:33:00 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Yeah, the source code is always the ultimate (excuse for not having) documentation. :)

But I meant more on the user or even integrator level.

I did some stuff a while back where we were constrainted to using libxml2.

The docs I could find for that were basically what were “auto produced” via probably source comments, etc.

And those (not the source code) necessarily give the full sense of what the “intended” behavior is.

Know what I mean?

So, may I ask, what propelled your effort? Do you also work in the field?


51 posted on 10/26/2011 9:36:48 AM PDT by Pessimist
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To: advertising guy

If you are trying to patent something in an obscure technical field, hiring some patent attorneys is like hiring a doctor of psychology to remove your appendix.


52 posted on 10/26/2011 9:38:24 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: ShadowAce

Semantics. POSIX wasn’t even a word when Linus started cloning UNIX. (1991<1997)


53 posted on 10/26/2011 9:41:17 AM PDT by douginthearmy
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To: Pessimist
So, may I ask, what propelled your effort? Do you also work in the field?

I had cool hardware that didn't have drivers. So I wrote them (plagerizing heavily from others).

Back then, I was more of a systems engineer, but needs must when the devil drives.

Today, I'm just a cook. ;)

/johnny

54 posted on 10/26/2011 9:44:53 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: douginthearmy
Try again
55 posted on 10/26/2011 10:24:00 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: BwanaNdege

Thanks will check it out. http://www.minimaxconcrete.com


56 posted on 10/26/2011 10:33:05 AM PDT by The Mayor ("If you can't make them see the light, let them feel the heat" — Ronald Reagan)
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To: ShadowAce
I was wrong on POSIX. I thought it begain in 1997.

But my initial point is that Linux is a Unix clone not an invention. Linus himself admits, "I'm working on a free version of a minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers", and minix was itself a unix clone. The point isn't that there is anything wrong with Linux, it is that people who are cloners have a skewed vision of "invention".

57 posted on 10/26/2011 10:43:11 AM PDT by douginthearmy
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To: Sherman Logan
-- This was, I believe, the first time in history when an ordinary person could routinely receive a patent or copyright for the exclusive use of his invention or writings. --

I was taught that the US patent system was adopted from Venice, where patents were used to entice guilded crafts to divulge their knowledge to the public. Wiki has a pretty good Summary History of Patent Law.

I agree with you that 100 years for copyright is bad (awful) policy. I suspect bribery to the politicians was in play. Life of the creator, max.

The genetic code patents don't bother me, because they have to be embodied in order to obtain protection. But some countries have a policy against patents in the field of health care. Not much in the way of medical R&D in those countries.

58 posted on 10/26/2011 10:56:48 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: allmendream
-- I refuse to accept that another company should be free to use the licensed trademarks of another company - even after 100 years. --

Trademark has an indefinite life. Theoretically, it can be perpetual. The point of trademark is to create and protect a public assocaition with a certain "quality" or brand of product.

Copyright means that the existing works can't be viewed without a licence, which usually means paying a royalty to the copyright holder.

59 posted on 10/26/2011 11:01:19 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: The Mayor
-- Something I have to do but the cost is outrageous. --

Ten grand is a good budgetary number for US Utility only. Cheapest I have done was about half that, most come in around $7,000 all done. $3,000 for preparation and filing is actually on the cheap side. Most important thing is to have the writer understand the prior art, and how your invention is patentably distinct. Then it's up to you to decide if that difference has a chance of commercial success where the profits will recover your cost of IP protection.

60 posted on 10/26/2011 11:07:16 AM PDT by Cboldt
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