From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Mar 12 9:43:13 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from nef.ens.fr (nef.ens.fr [129.199.96.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48FA837B718 for ; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:42:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from Rahul.Siddharthan@lpt.ens.fr) Received: from corto.lpt.ens.fr (corto.lpt.ens.fr [129.199.122.2]) by nef.ens.fr (8.10.1/1.01.28121999) with ESMTP id f2CHgvr74046 ; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 18:42:57 +0100 (CET) Received: from (rsidd@localhost) by corto.lpt.ens.fr (8.9.3/jtpda-5.3.1) id SAA79981 ; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 18:42:57 +0100 (CET) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 18:42:57 +0100 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: gca1 Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Patent and software ... Message-ID: <20010312184257.E73862@lpt.ens.fr> Mail-Followup-To: gca1 , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: ; from gca1@free.fr on Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 06:21:17PM +0100 X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 3.4-STABLE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org gca1 said on Mar 12, 2001 at 18:21:17: > Hello, > > I have just read a article on patent in a linux periodical. > > In USA, is it possible to take out a patent for a software or an idea ? > > 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. > > Is that true ? http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/patents.html Patents can be overturned based on proof of "prior art" so it's not quite as bad as you say. But yes, it is pretty bad... R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message