--On 31. mai 2002 07:54 -0600 Vernon Schryver <vjs@calcite.rhyolite.com> wrote: >> >> I guess what I was asking was how the IETF would feel about an >> organization grabbing a patent on an algorithm and using it the same way >> the GNU crew uses copyright on source code. (Remember - the GNU >> copyright only works for *code* - since algorithms can be (at least in >> the US) patented but not copyrighted, you'd have to do a similar stunt >> with a patent). >> >> (And yes, this would be a case of "the Good Guys file a bull-manure >> patent to pre-empt the Evil Guys from filing a bull-manure patent" - but >> until the Patent Office gets their act together we're stuck with borked >> software patents that are invalid due to prior art, etc....) > > In theory that could happen. It may have happened in practice with > the Ethernet patent. But what's the point? What is gained by > winning such a patent from government(s) compared to publishing > the same document, other than a year or three of jumping through > hoops and plenty of money and hassles? the only advantage I could see is that the only prior-arts database the patent offices are REQUIRED to search is the database of old patents.