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Rockbox mail archiveSubject: RE: Rockbox Intellectual Property questionRE: Rockbox Intellectual Property question
From: Matthew P. OReilly <moreilly_at_moreilly.com>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:23:52 -0400 IANAL either, --BUT-- AFAIK/IIRC, with regard to US law, if someone patents something, then that patent is challenged (and won) in court, the patent and all royalties from that patent are automatically applied to the author/owner of the prior art. I think that perhaps proving that they got the idea from you would be part of this, but I'm not sure. Matt -----Original Message----- From: owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se]On Behalf Of Jonah, Jim Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 3:26 PM To: 'rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se' Subject: RE: Rockbox Intellectual Property question IANAL, Since you've "published" the work it's now prior art. The question is, will the patent office find this work when they do the search? Based on the patents they are issuing they are not doing a good job of searching. The best way to protect it is the file for a Patent (defensively) yourself. You can always assign stewardship of the patent to an organization such as EFF, etc. and a declare it for free for use in open source projects. You could also do a dual license - free for open source, pay for non-open source, non-free usage. You could have the revenues go to your favorite Open Source organization to fund pro-open source lobbyists (which, sad to say, will be required in the near future, I fear). Even when prior art exists many companies just won't spend the 500k or more it takes to fight it in court. So I wouldn't count on prior art protecting your excellent idea. Jim (My personal opinions - they may or may not my employers opinions) Received on 2003-05-21 Page template was last modified "Tue Sep 7 00:00:02 2021" The Rockbox Crew -- Privacy Policy |