[Patents] Some remarks on Vol 1 #284

[Nicolas MONNET nico@monnet.to]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Steve Probert wrote:

|Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 09:28:48 +0100
|From: Steve Probert <steve.probert@patent.gov.uk>
|To: patents@liberte.aful.org
|Subject: Re: [Patents] Some remarks on Vol 1 #284
|
|>That's fine and dandy, now I'm a software engineer, I might release
|>something open source or not so free software written by yours truly
|>himself, and now, suddenly, I have to be aware of any of the 13'000
|>patents available, most of which, even if they pertain to my profession, I
|>could'nt even comprehend. (Me non parlare lawyerspeak).
|
|>There's something silly about this.
|
|But the same argument applies with equal force to almost all fields of
|invention. Following this argument to its logical conclusion would mean
|that patents (not just software patents) should only be owned by, and
|enforced against, large companies.  Apart from being a nightmare to
|implement in practice, this could easily prevent small companies from
|growing into larger companies.

The whole thing is about software patents; I'm not aware of any other
field where this is that much of a problem.