Re: It's all context

[Andy Baxter]

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:56:08 -0500, rjack wrote:

> There is no magic bullet to fight Microsoft's patent hegemony except 
> other independently obtained software process patents. Let the education 
> process begin for open source programmers. The dream of the GPL freeing 
> programmers to do what they do best --- write source code --- is simply 
> a dream. Without expending sufficient time and resources learning the 
> legal methods for software patent applications, open source software 
> projects will become an evolutionary dead end unless these projects seek 
> out a corporate "patent" sugar daddy to protect them.
> 
> Microsoft is TERRIFIED of the thought of software patents in the hands 
> of the little guy.
> 
> rjack

Wouldn't it be 

a) cheaper
b) more in the spirit of free software
c) more likely to succeed

just to register any code that you consider might constitute a patent with
a public notary, so that at a later date it can be used as evidence that
any patent which someone later claims on that idea is invalid? (I.e.
because there is already 'prior art' embodying the idea).

andy

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