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Re: Ethernet with no IP address



On Wed, 10 Jul 2013 09:21:13 -0500, Eric wrote in message 
<[🔎] 00b901ce7d78$bbe46ca0$33ad45e0$@com>:

> Man - thanks so much for all the answers so quickly.  Without going
> into boring detail....I have a client that has a patent 

..with a patent number, no doubt?
I see the other guys here has given you tech and legal hints,
so I'll limit myself to legal hints and politics.

> on a network
> security device that he now wants me to build a prototype for. 

..if you give, sell, loan etc him that prototype, and he is not part 
of your business or household etc, you will want check up on the 
distribution language in the GPL and the other relevant licenses.

> Part of the patent states that the device is 'invisible' to the Internet
> because it has no configured IP ports.  It is supposed to sit INLINE
> in the network somewhere (say between router and single PC) and
> filter/block packets that come through it to the destination PC or
> vica-versa.  It's kinda like a bridge (only with logic processing
> during the bridge operation).  If we address the ports, then I depart
> from the patent and I have no idea what is allowed from a legal
> standpoint in doing something like this.  As a high level application
> programmer (mostly Java for the past 15 years), I find myself
> woefully short on the knowledge/experience to accomplish such a task.

..the primary idea behind the patent legislation, is help you 
learn from the patented ideas, how they works etc, etc, so you 
can find even better ways to do what the patents claims, and 
patent your own improvements, if they are good enough, they 
"improve the arts."

..about the only thing you can not do with something that's 
patented, is sell etc distribute the patented items, the other 
"secondary" point with patents is reward the innovator with a 
20 year sales monopoly so he can recover his R&D costs and earn 
an honest decent profit.

-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.


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