[Mono-list] something general about software patents

[Dan Lewis]

 --- Richard Torkar <richard.torkar@htu.se> wrote:
> I have experience from software patents and the short answer is YES. They 
> want to cover as much as possible.

Makes sense, I guess :) On a more serious note perhaps you could shed some
light on an issue that's bothering me, as someone with little experience of
patents and the ins and outs of pflegening.

My gut feeling is that digging into the USPO's crates to examine Microsoft's
.NET-related patents is as dubious as decompiling their code or looking at
their shared source implementation. I realize that people want to avoid
accidently implementing a feature or algorithm that's covered by a patent, but
how are you honestly going to prove that you weren't influenced by what you
saw?

Do the Ximian team or any other list members have access to some legal
resources, so we could find out what the best policy on this is? Like I said,
my gut feeling is that we should implement now (of our own ingenuity) and
correct later. At least that way we can't be accused of violating patents
knowingly -- bearing in mind that determining patent violation seems a very
subjective process. Until then it may be best not to post patent details to
this list.

Dan.


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