Patents and OpenMoko

Joe Pfeiffer joseph at pfeifferfamily.net
Fri Feb 8 16:11:15 CET 2008


Jonathan Spooner writes:
>So you want to patent any unique tech in the neo to prevent some scum 
>from patenting your ideas then taking openmoko to court?
>
>Then just do it!  Its in everyones interest not to see openmoko taken 
>down so I'd imagine anyone here with an ounce of sense would not have a 
>bad word to say about that.
>
>Its really that simple, is it not?

No, it's not.  Simply releasing information publicly establishes prior
art that prevents patenting by others (well, valid patents).  The idea
here is to set up an ability to defend against other companies with
valid patents that are inadvertently infringed:  "whoops, didn't
realize, sorry.  Say, if you want royalties from us, let's have a chat
about our patent X which you're infringing while we're at it..."

Patenting ideas and joining the Patent Commons seems like a really
good way of establishing that you're simply trying to protect yourself
in today's reality, not trying to profit by the broken system.




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