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Re: Patents and revocation clauses



That is the correct legal conclusion...

so there ;)

NatePuri
Certified Law Student
& Debian GNU/Linux Monk
McGeorge School of Law
publisher@ompages.com
http://ompages.com

On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Jules Bean wrote:

> On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Bruce Sass wrote:
> 
> > On 16 Mar 1999, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > > Clause 7 of the GPL simply states that the right to make copies
> > > of the covered program does not apply if there's a patent which
> > > applies to the code and whose owner contests the free distribution
> > > of the code.
> > > 
> > > Say that IBM released their code under GPL in the above scenario.
> > > Company B might still go to court, and they might succesfully argue
> > > that their patent is valid and applies to the program. However, in the
> > > same moment the judge decides this, >poof< the GPL effectively
> > > vanishes from all copies of the program (or at least all copies in the
> > > same jurisdiction).
> > 
> > So GPLed becomes non-free, because no license == non-free?
> 
> Yup.
> 
> > 
> > > IBM wouldn't be stuck with having licenced out
> > > infringing code, so company B wouldn't probably get more out of their
> > > suit than if there had been a revocation clause which IBM had
> > > voluntarily invoked.
> > 
> > :(  It sounds like including a patented algorithm in your code could
> > be tantamount to including a revocation clause in the license you
> > distribute with the code.
> 
> True, I'm afraid.
> 
> That's the bugger about allow algorithms to be patented.
> 
> What's worse, is that you might not even know the algorithm is patented..
> 
> Jules
> 
> /----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\
> |  Jelibean aka  | jules@jellybean.co.uk         |  6 Evelyn Rd	       |
> |  Jules aka     | jules@debian.org              |  Richmond, Surrey   |
> |  Julian Bean   | jmlb2@hermes.cam.ac.uk        |  TW9 2TF *UK*       |
> +----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+
> |  War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left.             |
> |  When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy.          |
> \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
> 
> 
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