From: Randall Parker 

So then if this is such a problem then why isn't XFree86 already tied up in
software patent suits in the USA?

Rich Gauszka wrote:

> from www.knoppix.org
>
> Closed because of "Software-Patents"
> In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the
> legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents" in
Europe, which
> are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors
> out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects
> such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over
> 30,000 already granted "software patents" (currently without a legal
> foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial
> things like "progress bars", "mouseclicks on online
order forms", "scrolling
> within a window" and similar. That way, software developers will
have to pay
> the "software-patentholders" for using these features, even
in their own,
> completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the
> development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart
> from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high,
> for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly
> violating "software-patents", if you want to continue to market your
> software. Contrary to real patents, "software-patents" are,
in the current
> draft, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any
> tangible technical implementation.
>
> More about the current major problem at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html
>
>

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