[vorbis] Fraunhoffer claims patents on other formats

[ben handley]

There was an article on byte in march (linked to from /.) about patent
law. One of the things it mentioned was a Statutory patent, which merely
prevents anyone else from patenting it, but doesn't allow the filer to
prevent others from using it. And its a lot cheaper than a normal one,
apparently. The article is at:
http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000301S0001

Might be worth looking into.

>    I think that that is naive, although maybe the laws in
> New Zealand are different.
> 
> This applies to the US only :
> 
> We used to be first to invent - unlike the rest of the world, which was
> first to file.
> 
> Now we are basically on the first to file system too, with one out.
> 
> Suppose there were no patents applied for with Vorbis.
> 
> My understanding is that if someone else invented something in Vorbis
> AND got a patent on it (not just applied for it, but received it),
> THEN it would be up to Vorbis implementers to show that they indeed
> had prior art (i.e., they would have a defense against a suit) AND the patent
> would still stand, except just not for the vorbis implementers
> (i.e., the implementers would be protected, but no one else could be)
> AND that the implementers would not have standing to sue to
> invalidate the existing patent.
> 
> This does not sound like the way to secure the open source movement.
> 
> WHEREAS, if you have an open source patent, you can just sue anyone who
> tries to patent it or use it in an non-open source fashion your software.
> 
> PLUS, the real benefit of patents is to horsetrade - don't sue us
> on this, and we won't sue you on that. No patents, no horsetrading.
> 
> I am not a lawyer, but I could easily get a legal opinion here.

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