[Patents] simple questions

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

> It would not matter if someone developed software on the Moon or Mars
> or at the ends of the universe, if they wanted to escape US or European
> patent infringement.  Once the software hits the shores of the US, it
> becomes subject to charges of infringing any relevant US patents.  So
> any company (and I hope you didn't advise them to do so) writing code
> in India or Philippines to escape patent infringement in the US or
> Europe is completely wasting its time - it is a totally invalid defensive
> patenting strategy.

I know.
But we are not talking about a world of law.
We are talking about strategies of surviving in a jungle of legal
insecurity created by software patents.
In this jungle, it is important that you get yourself out of the shooting
lines and make sure others are hit first. 
If you have no capital to offer in Germany, you are less likely to be
attacked before a German court.
The same is true if you are just using modules that come from somewhere
else to solve a particular program.  Nobody can prove what you were really
doing or it may be so difficult to prove that the patentee will look for
another target first.
 
> And each time you raise the issue of some German court decision hostile
> to software patents, I on the other side of the Atlantic can raise the
> issue of some American court devision supportive of software patents.
> They cancel each other out, unless you can give me a good proof that
> the legal analysis capabilities of German judges is better than that
> of American judges.  

Concerning German/European law, I dare say it is.

-phm