From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jun 11 16:15: 4 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from earth.backplane.com (earth-nat-cw.backplane.com [208.161.114.67]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 906E637B409 for ; Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:15:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dillon@earth.backplane.com) Received: (from dillon@localhost) by earth.backplane.com (8.11.3/8.11.2) id f5BNEwE34320; Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:14:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dillon) Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 16:14:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Matt Dillon Message-Id: <200106112314.f5BNEwE34320@earth.backplane.com> To: Mikulas Patocka Cc: Jonathan Lemon , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Patented algorithm in FreeBSD References: Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG :> So it looks like we have prior art by around 6 years, which would :> invalidate the patent iff it was the same thing. : :Does it mean that the algorithm is free to use by everyone or free to use :only in freebsd? I would like to implemet these page table back pointers :too and I'm scared by the patent... I don't know how US patent system :works. : :Mikulas Oh, I meant to give a few examples. Take the RAMBUS memory case. RAMBUS got a bunch of patents on ram processes then staked their entire company on the patent. They challenged a number of companies and even got a few to buckle under. Unfortunately a few companies didn't buckle under and RAMBUS now looks to be on the losing side... they are likely to see their entire patent obliterated. Then there's the case of the Dickens 2000 patent. This guy 'invented' a windowing technique for 2 digit years. Here's some references: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1504369.html http://www.itaa.org/year2000/dickens.htm (slow site) This is an example of a patent that should obviously be thrown out (I mean, give me a break!), but look how long it's taking and the amount of effort required to make it happen? Expensive. The problem is that the patent office is not really all that technically savvy. It's unfortunate, but I think one of the biggest things open-source gives to the world is a huge library of prior-art to help us fight these idiots. Go open source! -Matt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message