Curiouser and Curiouser! on simon-phipps http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic simon-phipps Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Patenting over our right of way Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:06:37 +0100 <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2003/09/16.html#a895">Patents</a>. </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"><a href="http://tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/09/15/SWPatents">Tim Bray confesses about having two patents</a> in the <em>pipeline</em> and goes on to talk about software patents. I also have a couple of security-related patents in the pipeline. To me, it's not the software patents but patents that violate public's <em>right of passage</em>.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">GIF patent was legit but Unisys was standing there and charging toll on what most of us considered public road. What is public road and what is not? The distinction is simple. If your enforcement of the patent hurts your public relations more than it adds to your bottomline, then you are standing on a public road.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">To be more precise, if your patent gives your solution advantages in quality of service, then it's legit. But if your patent leads to the only solution, then you are a troll. If your patented formula makes cars go faster, I am fine with that. If you patented the idea of automobiles, I am not all right with that and all for public's right to steamroll over such patents.</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">My justification is this. Since patent laws can be changed or even banished by the people, the people has the right to selectively change or banish any specific patent it chooses. Implementation is problematic, but the principle is sound IMHO.</p> <div style="margin-left: 40px;"> [<a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/">Don Park's Daily Habit</a>]<br> </div> <br> Don's really captured my feelings on patents.<br> <br> It's like toll-roads over here.&nbsp; In principle I'm okay with private money being used to build toll-roads to relieve congested public roads.&nbsp; On the other hand if it was suggested that a toll-road be the only way to get from A to B then I'd have a big problem with that (like for example what happened on the <a href="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ray_shields/bnews.htm">Isle of Skye</a>).<br> <br> So it is with patents.<br> <br> A few days ago Simon Phipps was <a href="http://www.webmink.net/2003_08_31_oldblog.htm#106279620209462444">talking</a> about the problem of patents retroactively breaking established standards (in the light of the EOLAS patent dispute).&nbsp; As Don says the issue of implemting a sensible approach to overriding patents is complex, but I think it's necessary if we are to keep building.<br> <br> The case in Europe doesn't look great.&nbsp; It seems the vested interests are wielding their mighty chequebooks as effectively over here as they do in Washington.<br> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001627.html