[ILUG] Re: ILUG sends s/w patents briefing document to Irish MEPs

[Niall O Broin]

On 20 Mar 2005, at 12:30, Joseph Kiniry wrote:

>> No.  Because so many patents are held on what would otherwise be 
>> termed
>> basic techniques (eg: the XOR trick to highlight an area of the 
>> screen),
>> it is extremely difficult to write unencumbered software.  The trouble
>> with the current system is that patents are held on many methods and
>> devices which are trivial yet essential.
>
> How does this contradict my point?  Even the technologies covered by 
> "basic technique" patents are easily implemented in other, innovative 
> ways.

The problem with "basic technique" patents is that they ARE so basic 
and are often NOT easily implemented in other, innovative ways. The XOR 
trick is a very good case in point (though that patent was granted in 
1978, so I presume it's expired by now) because it is so basic, obvious 
and simple to implement, and importantly when it started being used, 
very cheap in CPU cycles. I don't know if sprite based systems infringe 
that patent, because I think many of those use a hardware overlay 
plane. I do know that Autodesk was a licensee of that patent for 
AutoCAD, and I imagine other CAD vendors and other large visible 
targets using this idea were too.

> Note that I *do* think that the existing US patent system is extremely 
> broken, particularly with regards to software and business patents.

Indeed - one click comes to mind straight away. I grew up as an 
engineer being told that a patent was on the implementation of an idea, 
not on an idea, but those halcyon days are gone.
>
> History has shown that existing trivial patents are voided once they 
> reach the courts or once an enormous corporation forces the USPTO into 
> a review. Of course, this is often a quite costly process.

Exactly. And in the U.S., where in the majority of cases AIUI each 
party pays its own court costs, simply being threatened with a court 
case will make most companies cave in, because even if you win the 
court case, you lose financially. I wonder what's the general practice 
in patent infringement cases in Ireland, where in general in civil 
cases the losing party pays the costs of both parties.


Niall