From: "Adam Flinton" 

Yup but it's just so sad.

I had this argument with a US software person I know who believes in s/w
patents & his big soundbite was "Patents stifle imitation, not
innovation".

Which just makes me shudder...e.g. look at the cars going past your window
& you'll notice that fundamentally they are all imitiations of each
other. Ford gets a good idea all the rest borrow it. Toyota gets a good
idea & all the rest (inc Ford) borrow it. It's the way humans progress
as a species.

The truely sad thing is that the concept of "MAD" has in effect
reached the corp level via the patent portfolio which is not sad per se for
the corps but for the public as in effect by doing public good via donating
ideas etc to the public domain you're "disarming unilaterally".

A good example is comps / people like Red Hat & the OSS community
having to go down the "protective portfolio" route rather than
the public good/ public domain route.

Never mind..as the EU grows in both population & economic clout we
might see the EU get assertive on forcing the US to drop software (&
business ) patents as being as invalid as mathematical or algebraic
patents.

Adam

"Dave Ings"  wrote in message
news:3e02920c{at}w3.nls.net...
> I'll bet you a virtual dollar they don't go after Lotus (for Sametime).
> While I find the "my portfolio is bigger than your
portfolio" routine a
bit
> distasteful, it does seem to be the case that it's pretty hard to sue IBM
> for patent infringement without getting like in return (but ten times
over).
> --
> Regards,
> Dave Ings,
> Toronto, Canada
>
> "Adam Flinton"  wrote in message
> news:3e01f8eb$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> >
>
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/4775
> > 050.htm
> >
> > This is a good example of why software patents are crap & I thank God
> > (UK/EU) Gov ain't that stupid.
> >
> > Heck Winpopup & what have you have been around since Win 3.11...Chat?
> >
> > Shock Horror a judge might require MS to change their software....oh the
> > horror of judges getting involved in software.....simple way to start
> > reducing it....get the US to drop software patents.
>
> > Indeed, sources
> >close to AOL are already suggesting the company is likely to pursue some
> >form of licensing revenue from Yahoo and Microsoft, its top rivals in the
> >consumer instant messaging space. "
>
>
>

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