Subject:
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Patents and IP and stuff (was Re: Goodness of Man? etc)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 6 Jan 2000 19:34:32 GMT
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Reply-To:
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mattdm@mattdmANTISPAM.org
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Viewed:
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1936 times
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Larry Pieniazek <lar@voyager.net> wrote:
> I'm not sure. I haven't carried out an exhaustive analysis of the rights
> involved. I would tend to say not, as long as the idea was developed
> independently and without knowledge of the first inventor's work...
> (that is, merely using a cleanroom and trying to match the features
> using an independent team doesn't count... you have to truly come up
> with the same idea without knowledge that it's already been done. That
> may not work practically, though, I dunno.)
What happens in the case of "obvious" developments? "Obvious" is of course
difficult to judge (which is why it merits quotation marks) but take this
theoretical example:
I live in a very primitive society. We've just started developing ideas. For
example, we're just getting numbers figured out. So far, as a society, we've
worked out "one", "two", "three". On Monday, someone figures out "four", on
Tuesday, someone else figures out "five". Then, on Wednesday, I wake up
before everyone else, 'cause I ate some bad sabre-toothed tiger for supper
and had a rough night. I get up before sunrise, and invent "six". Then, I
start painting it everywhere and yelling "six six six" until everyone else
wakes up and hears me.
Do I then have ownership of the concept of six? Must everyone else ask me
first before counting that high?
--
Matthew Miller ---> mattdm@mattdm.org
Quotes 'R' Us ---> http://quotes-r-us.org/
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