[Patents] Re: [Patents] Re: [Patents] brevets et logiciel libres (version elaboree)

[John Tobey spam@john-edwin-tobey.org]

PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de> wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Sep 1999, John Tobey wrote:
> 
> > Where can I learn about cases of free software programmers who have
> > been sued for patent infringement?
> 
> Bruce Perens has been threatened with a lawsuit by a company who got a
> patent on his e-fence concept just a few months before he published his
> program. Another programmer who wrote a GNU program had to stop because of
> a patent which came later than his idea.  This case is mentioned in a
> paper by Richard Stallman on http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/.

Hrmm.  Yes, I had read about these two cases.  Maybe instead of
claiming that "many have been sued", we should point out that many
American programmers *risk* being sued or are *threatened* with legal
action.

-John