From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Aug 5 04:58:23 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E25C61065670 for ; Sun, 5 Aug 2012 04:58:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from johnl@iecc.com) Received: from leila.iecc.com (leila6.iecc.com [IPv6:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:4c:6569:6c61]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B5CD8FC0C for ; Sun, 5 Aug 2012 04:58:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 55032 invoked from network); 5 Aug 2012 04:58:22 -0000 Received: from leila.iecc.com (64.57.183.34) by mail1.iecc.com with QMQP; 5 Aug 2012 04:58:22 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple; d=iecc.com; h=date:message-id:from:to:cc:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:vbr-info; s=501dfd6e.xn--hew.k1208; i=johnl@user.iecc.com; bh=Hg+DZ6Rzxh/ImFBTRDeF0H4UEurprGEbXcJVrnhR53Y=; b=H3meVTmNPBGX8Wln0e/Q9f7keLJlF5KmfDJmgNWJpTOLhy6qHeJv2tvko2zsB4n23pmIEd+758oStriKWnUWdatsrZyjNWiBHu847fa59wy9TufUIpf+LHtK2PraqMn2h+VdO4SyyncqPyTMONh3rRNyH6G9/GLtWk5kJR7R5+Y= VBR-Info: md=iecc.com; mc=all; mv=dwl.spamhaus.org Date: 5 Aug 2012 04:58:00 -0000 Message-ID: <20120805045800.29444.qmail@joyce.lan> From: "John Levine" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: Organization: X-Headerized: yes Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Cc: millenia2000@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 04:58:24 -0000 >> Out of curiosity has anyone ever heard of trolls patenting open source >> technologies after the fact? > >The prior art stipulations pretty much kills that off, unless they make a >genuine improvement/change to it to not qualify under that, then they would >be well within patent law to apply for a patent. The patent office has never been very good at examining software patents, and I have made a lot of money helping companies document the prior art not cited in patents that are being asserted against them. R's, John