From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Mar 12 11:51:55 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from blues.jpj.net (blues.jpj.net [204.97.17.146]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 939A137B72E for ; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:51:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from trevor@jpj.net) Received: from localhost (trevor@localhost) by blues.jpj.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id f2CJpQU00300; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:51:26 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:51:26 -0500 (EST) From: Trevor Johnson To: gca1 Cc: Subject: Re: Patent and software ... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20010312144118.B20517-100000@blues.jpj.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > Hello, Hi, Christian. > In USA, is it possible to take out a patent for a software or an idea? Yes. > if a mere idea can be patented, then companies can patent all the > unimaginable ideas and wait until have been developped by anyone else to > have a operating monopoly or to cash rights. The subject matter sought to be patented must be a "useful" process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, i.e., it must have a practical application. The purpose of this requirement is to limit patent protection to inventions that possess a certain level of "real world" value, as opposed to subject matter that represents nothing more than an idea or concept, or is simply a starting point for future investigation --http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/hearings/software/analysis/files/guides.wp Algorithms have been patented (see http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section-7.html for examples). > What are organizations which grant patent ? The United States Patent and Trademark Office. -- Trevor Johnson http://jpj.net/~trevor/gpgkey.txt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message