Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 22:35:24 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: <cjclark@alum.mit.edu>, "Salvo Bartolotta" <bartequi@neomedia.it> Cc: "P. U. (Uli) Kruppa" <root@pukruppa.de>, <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <007701c15216$867d47c0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20011010140126.M387@blossom.cjclark.org>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: Crist J. Clark [mailto:cristjc@earthlink.net] >Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 2:01 PM >To: Salvo Bartolotta >Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt; P. U. (Uli) Kruppa; freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark > > >But you agree there needs to be protection. If you have a better way, >offer it up. I don't think that the patent system is perfect or that >it is not frequently abused[0]. I do believe patents are the best fit >we have right now for protecting the IP inherent in computer programs. > Let me throw a comment into the mix on this patenting issue. One thing people forget about patents is that they create a permanent record of a process or device. While the most spectacular patents (new drugs, etc.) get plenty of attention in various medical journals and such, the majority of patents are granted for small little things, for example a hand tool. These new inventions generally never see wide distribution and if there wasn't ever a patent on them, the invention might disappear forever. With a patent, someone 20 or 30 years later that needs a particular thing can do a patent search and see if anyone has ever manufactured an invention that solves what they need to do, and if they find an expired patent on an invention they can use the contact info to perhaps dig up a set of plans for it. To give you an idea of what I mean, years ago my father worked for a power switching company that needed to supply a customer with an actuator that moved a large mechanical switch. The only problem was that where this was to be installed was out in the boondocks - no electricity. The company of course had no actuators that didn't run off electric power. So, in the head scratching process of trying to figure out how to answer this, someone happened to look up old actuator patents and ran across one that ran off of compressed air. The patent had of course long since expired but there was enough of a description of how it worked to give them a general idea of what the inventor had been getting at, so they built an actuator that used a cylinder of compressed oxygen (such cylinders are commonly used in welding) that could supply the actuator with mechanical power for a couple hundred cycles. Since the thing actuated perhaps once or twice a year it was a great solution and the customer ended up buying about 50 of the things. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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