On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 09:18:34PM +0000, Jens Rehsack wrote: > Todd Stephens wrote: > But if any algorithm used in bsd will be patented in europe and > the patent became valid, they may have a problem either.
I don't know about Europe, but if the algorithm existed in *BSD prior to the patent, that would be "prior art", and it would invalidate the patent. Given the way changes have been introduced into the code base in the various BSDs, there shouldn't be any problem documenting that BSD had it first. The problem is not on things that already exist; they can generally be documented. The problem is granting patents on trivial improvements, like "one click shopping". Patent law was never intended to protect that sort of thing. Bob Hall _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
