|
|
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Message |
Ralph Crongeyer
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 20
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 5:50 pm Post subject:
Software patents...
|
|
|
Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
Ralph
--
Linux, to keep you humble.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
OSS
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 13
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:20 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
Ralph
Ralph, |
You may be confusing patent with copyright. To start you will need to
consider what, if any, employment agreement you had. The law surrounding
software patents is jurisdiction specific. Most jurisdiction do not
allow software-only patents, some do, and some allow software that is
part of an invention to be patented as part of the invention. In any
event a patent requires the expression be novel, the fact that this
invention has already been expressed would count at prior art and be
used to invalidate any patent that was granted.
In any event I would suggest going to the gvt site in your country and
looking for the copyright &/or patent office. There will be enough
information to get you started. Some countries (Canada) have a combined
Intelectual Property Office that covers copyright/trademark/patent,
others are different offices.
Dave
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Franki
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 19
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:20 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
Ralph
|
You can't do that I believe..
The work you did for the government would be classed as prior art.. and
prior at nixes patents.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Alvin Oga
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Posts: 485
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:40 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
On Thu, 3 Feb 2005, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
|
< i aint no lawyer)
"patents" ... you have to be the first .... not the copy cat (rewrite)
so even if you were to pay some "expert lawyer $100M to get your
new patent ... it'd be worthless in the long run since it
is "next generation" of what somebody else did
- where their originl ideas end and where you new ideas start
would depend on the govt contract and your employment terms
i think you mean copyright .. but even so ... depends on the terms of
the govt contract and your employement contract where you work when
they hired you...
- usually they own anything and everything ... including what's
in your head that you gained from when you worked there
( its a touchy subject of what is "intellectual property"
( vs just knowledge you get and remember... nobody can make
( you forget what you know
- ALWAYS talk to a lawyer ... and pay them for their professional advice
</aint>
or if you want more "free" help, try debian-legal or other "sw mailing
lists"
c ya
alvin
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Joe
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 214
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:00 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
In message <3tUdk-3A8-17@gated-at.bofh.it>, Ralph Crongeyer
<ralph@crongeyer.com> writes
| Quote: | Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
As a matter of civility, I will direct you toward Google, an excellent |
search engine. I would point out that this group is named
linux.debian.user, and has absolutely nothing to do with patents or law,
not that you mentioned which set of laws you had in mind.
Was there any part of that you did not understand?
--
Joe
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Robert Schott
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 03 Feb 2005
Posts: 1
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
|
When you are from Europe then copyright is still your friend and there
are no swpatents.
Living in US or 'Down Under' there are significant problems with this.
For infos about European efforts right now see www.ffii.org
regards,
Robert
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ralph Crongeyer
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 20
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:20 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
Alvin Oga wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 3 Feb 2005, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
i aint no lawyer)
"patents" ... you have to be the first .... not the copy cat (rewrite)
so even if you were to pay some "expert lawyer $100M to get your
new patent ... it'd be worthless in the long run since it
is "next generation" of what somebody else did
- where their originl ideas end and where you new ideas start
would depend on the govt contract and your employment terms
i think you mean copyright .. but even so ... depends on the terms of
the govt contract and your employement contract where you work when
they hired you...
- usually they own anything and everything ... including what's
in your head that you gained from when you worked there
( its a touchy subject of what is "intellectual property"
( vs just knowledge you get and remember... nobody can make
( you forget what you know
- ALWAYS talk to a lawyer ... and pay them for their professional advice
/aint
or if you want more "free" help, try debian-legal or other "sw mailing
lists"
c ya
alvin
Thanks to everyone for your advice and help getting me started.  |
As some pointed out, I actually did mean copywrite.
I'll try the "debian-legal" list as was suggested.
Thanks again.
--
Linux, to keep you humble.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Gene Heskett
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 336
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
On Thursday 03 February 2005 13:49, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that
was being used on a government project and then I left the company
and wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same
thing) and patent it myself, is that legal?
Ralph
|
IANAL. However, think about it. The fact that you wrote the other,
privately funded program would seriously 'taint' you in a court of
law as far as your being able to defend youself against a suit should
your former company take a legal interest in what you are doing as it
would be in direct competition to their product. Particularly if
there was a "kissin cousins" similarity in the name it was to be
known by.
That said, many years ago someone was talking about a program they had
for the m68k boards, bragging about it, and I had him send me the
stuff it did and a couple of screen shots. The system I was working
on didn't have that sort of graphics available, but the workalike
program I wrote is now included in other software distributions just
because its the best swiss army knife to have. Text based of course,
but for that OS, its the best tool for a lot of stuff. And it did
more than their utility ever thought of, mainly because things just
kept getting in my way, so the fix for this or that became yet
another option for my utility.
There have been no repercussions, mainly because their target box, and
ours at the time only had moto labels on the cpu's as the common
point.
But I suspect that the x86 field gets a lot more attention paid to it.
| Quote: | --
Linux, to keep you humble.
|
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
99.32% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Todd A. Jacobs
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Posts: 120
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 01:49:32PM -0500, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | the company and wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the
same thing) and patent it myself, is that legal?
|
Patents != Copyrights. Even if it were "legal," I sincerely doubt you
could overcome the prior art requirements.
Regardless, this list is for discussing Debian, not for dispensing legal
advice. I'd consult a lawyer if I were you.
--
Find my Techno-Geek Journal at http://www.codegnome.org/geeklog/
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Paul E Condon
*nix forums Guru Wannabe
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 264
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 2:40 am Post subject:
Re: Software patents...
|
|
|
On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 03:16:28PM -0500, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
| Quote: | Alvin Oga wrote:
On Thu, 3 Feb 2005, Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
i aint no lawyer)
"patents" ... you have to be the first .... not the copy cat (rewrite)
so even if you were to pay some "expert lawyer $100M to get your
new patent ... it'd be worthless in the long run since it
is "next generation" of what somebody else did
- where their originl ideas end and where you new ideas start
would depend on the govt contract and your employment terms
i think you mean copyright .. but even so ... depends on the terms of
the govt contract and your employement contract where you work when
they hired you...
- usually they own anything and everything ... including what's
in your head that you gained from when you worked there
( its a touchy subject of what is "intellectual property"
( vs just knowledge you get and remember... nobody can make
( you forget what you know
- ALWAYS talk to a lawyer ... and pay them for their professional advice
/aint
or if you want more "free" help, try debian-legal or other "sw mailing
lists"
c ya
alvin
Thanks to everyone for your advice and help getting me started.
As some pointed out, I actually did mean copywrite.
|
No. You meant copyright. Copywrite is the name of an early word
processing program.
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Google
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
The time now is Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:51 pm | All times are GMT
|
|
Online Advertising | Remortgages | Bankruptcy | Cheap Loan | Debt Consolidation
|
|
Copyright © 2004-2005 DeniX Solutions SRL
|
|
|
|
Other DeniX Solutions sites:
Unix/Linux blog |
electronics forum |
medicine forum |
science forum |
|
|
Privacy Policy
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
Forum index
»
*nix
»
Linux
»
Distributions
»
Debian
