[Osia-discuss] Re: [Linux-aus] Re: Hooks to the AU patent process

[Con Zymaris]

On Fri, Aug 06, 2004 at 12:17:41PM +1000, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-08-06 at 12:08, Con Zymaris wrote:
> 
> > Owning patents without an effective legal offensive capability is pretty
> > close to useless. 
> > 
> > Hoping that you can scare big vendors who may try to damage the open
> > source industry by owning patents that they themselves tresspass, wont
> > work. You need serious legal firepower to take those guys on. Most
> > Australian developers and SMEs don't have that firepower.
> 
> Hi Con! Long time no talk.
> 
> Sure, maybe what I'm doing *is* useless, I don't know. But there's the
> slim chance that it will help, perhaps in a situation where someone
> trespasses on one of my provisional patents that I don't have resources
> to defend but where other interested parties can help out. Obviously I
> don't expect unlimited free legal assistance to defend all my
> provisional patents, but it just may be that a situation comes up where
> some little FOSS developer happens to have a [provisional]patent and a
> BigCo tries to stomp on them and the rest of the community rallies
> behind the developer on that one issue to make a point.

The comments weren't intended by way of reproach ;-) Just stating harsh 
reality.

While we're on this topic, read the following:

 http://zdnet.com.com/5208-1107-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=4663&messageID=96725&start=-1

 ...
        
 Don't assume that you are any safer using Microsoft's products. While
 none of the above patent threats to Linux has yet to see a day in court,
 Microsoft has already lost at least two legal cases, the Eolas web plugin
 patent and Timeline Inc's patents.
  
 Microsoft licensed patented technology for only itself without granting
 the right for end users and developers to use the same patented
 technology. Microsoft licensed Database/Datawarehouse technology from
 Timeline Inc, but unlike Oracle and other database vendors, Microsoft
 chose a license that did not grant Microsoft's customers the right to 
 fully use that technology.



-- 
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
Web: http://www.cyber.com.au/  Phone: 03 9621 2377   Fax: 03 9621 2477