Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 07:26:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: dr2867@pacbell.net, kpneal@pobox.com, wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ? Message-ID: <201208041226.q74CQs60058248@mail.r-bonomi.com> In-Reply-To: <1344029675.52304.YahooMailClassic@web182201.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
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> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 14:34:35 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Daniel Rudy <dr2867@pacbell.net>
> Subject: Re: Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ?
>
> ...... A big difference between copyright
> and patents is that copyright is constitutional (Article 1, Section 8,
> Clause 8), patents are not.
FALSE TO FACT.
Quoting from Article 1, Section 8:
"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries,:
Congress is _expressly_ authorized to secure "for limited times to ...
invetors the esclusive right to their ... inventions".
> The reason why patents came up was that back
> around 1900 when automobile manufacturing was getting started, companies
> would copy each others ideas. You come up with something, then a week
> competitors stole your idea and was implementing it in their products.
Pure, undiluted, male bovine excrement. <grin>
Fact: the U.S. had been issuing patents for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS by
that time. The first patent under the _current_ numbering sytem was
issued on July 13, 1836, with 9,957 patents issued prior to that
numberinng system -- the first of which was issued o 7/4, 1790.
Now, applying for a patent =was= a convoluted, lengthy (as in -years-),
and time-consuming, process -- which a lot of inventors did -not- bother
with, unless they saw relatiely "immmediate" opportunities for it to
generate commercial revenue. And such 'unprotected' work _was_ 'fair
game' for copying. Which was a _good_ thing for the then-nascent auto-
motive industry. Imagine the mayhem if somebody had pateted the
steering wheel, the gear-shift lever/mechanism, or the arrangement of
the foot-pedals. Somebody who learned to drive a Ford, wouldn't be
able to drive an Olds, etc.
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