On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 03:06:22AM -0400, Chapman Flack wrote: > On 07/25/18 01:56, Nico Williams wrote: > > > Wrong. With patents the important thing is not to know about them when > > you implement -- if you come up with the same idea by accident (which, > > of course, is obviously entirely possible) then you are not subject to > > trebble damages. > > Even if the damages are not trebled, can 1✕ the damages be more than you > would like to shell out? Not to mention the hassle of getting any infringing > uses to cease?
You get a chance to stop infringing. Also, how could you avoid accidentally re-inventing patented algorithms if not by doing a costly patent search every time you open $EDITOR?? > Also, is this distinction universally applied across jurisdictions? It doesn't matter. The point is that no one does a patent search every time they design an algorithm -- not unless they mean to patent it. So you can't avoid accidentally re-inventing patented algorithms.
