Re: [Patents] French high level civil servant warns about spwatdanger

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>]

SCO is pressing no copyright infringement claims.

Seth Johnson

Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> 
> >[Jean-Michel Yolin] quoted as saying that patents were created to induce
> >innovation but that they have been diverted to create minefields and
> >neutralize "embarrassing" competitors. Now patent holders send lawyers
> >when the competitor is looking for funds and customers.
> 
> If Mr. Yolin understood anything about the SCO/IBM case, or IP law in
> general, we would have stated something more accurate like:
>         .... that COPYRIGHTS and patents were created to induce
>         .... innovation but that they have been diverted to
>         .... create minefields and neutralize "embarassing"
>         .... competitors.  Now COPYRIGHT AND patent holders send
>         .... lawyers when the competitors is looking for funds and
>         .... customers.
> 
> Which more accurately reflects that there are both COPYRIGHT AND patent
> allegations involved with the SCO/IBM case.  Yolin must be in the pay
> of copyright lawyers because whereas you can only create minefields
> with software patents for 20 years, you can create minefiles with
> software copyrights for 100+ years.  Gee, maybe this whole list is in
> the pay of software copyright litigators.
> 
> Especially in this case, IBM has more to worry about from the copyright
> infringement claims than the patent infringement claims (though it is
> hard to be sympathetic to IBM since they were the ones in the late 1960s
> to foster the illogic of software copyright, an illogic they later
> abandoned mostly for software patents, without correcting the damage
> they caused).
> 
> Greg Aharonian

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