[OLSR-users] Software Patents in Europe and OLSR

[Bernd Petrovitsch]

On Mon, 2005-06-27 at 09:36 -0700, John Clark wrote:
> Thomas Lopatic wrote:
> 
> >About 90% of European companies are against software patents it seems,
> >however the European Commission says that the remaining 10% have greater
> >weight in terms of taxes and jobs than the 90% and that, hence, software
> >patents are a Good Thing[tm] for Europe. Let's show them that this is
> >not the case.
> >
> Here in the US there have been a number of patents issued on software, 
> and it is a major pain
> to deal with. What has also happened is that the 'original' developers 
> often see absolutely no benefit
> from their 'patent'. This happens in cases where the patent was granted 
> to a small company, which
> eventually could not capitalize on the patent, the company closes, and 
> the assets are 'bought' by
> some entity. Often a legal firm which then 'searches' companies that are 
> touting something similar

The new word hereover for this is "patent-troll".

> to the patent idea, and sends them a letter of pay license or cease and 
> dissist (stop now and don't continue, a
> US legal requirement for pusuing a patent infringement case...). Often 
> companies will pay up with
> out a fight because they do not have the financial resources to pay 
> lawyers to defend.

We tell exactly this (and several other things) almost everyone who
wants to listen (and a lot of peopel who doesn't seem to want to
listen).
The only available propaganda from US seems to be BSA-written.

	Bernd
-- 
Firmix Software GmbH                   http://www.firmix.at/
mobil: +43 664 4416156                 fax: +43 1 7890849-55
          Embedded Linux Development and Services