[Patents] Threats to developers

[Nicolas MONNET nico@monnet.to]

I know that register colouring, although the best available algorithm, is
not implemented in GCC because of an IBM patent; I'm not sure if there was
any threat though.

On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Francois PELLEGRINI wrote:

|> I think Bruce Perens was threatened over his ElectricFence bounds
|> checking system for C programs by a company which obtained a patent
|> while he was still developing it.  Despite the fact that bounds checking
|> is not by any means a new idea.  Or perhaps the patent concerned bounds
|> checking not as such?
|
|    Exact.
|
|    In fact, the memory leak checking algorithm was patented by Pure
|Software
|for its "Purify" tool. Pure software merged with Atria (www.pureatria.com),
|and
|finally got swallowed by Rational Software (www.rational.com).
|
|    Indeed, Pure Software reportedly threatened to sue any individual
|trying to produce
|a libre enhanced version of memory-leak checkers. It is why, although the
|need
|for such a tool is obvious in any libre distribution for developers, it is
|still missing.
|
|    The same for the guys who developed BladeEnc for MP3, who are
|threatened
|(in Europe !) by Thomson Multimedia, which licences the MP3 patents.
|
|    Another stone in your garden, M. Aharonian. What arguments do you have
|left ?