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Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> It is a PIA to be working on a public list
> and have someone send me email that says:
>
> "Be advised that we patented the concept of tagging
> human emotions, see http://upchuck.com "
>
> and know that if you look at that page, you may be
> bound to its terms. That sort of thing is bad law
> and must be changed. If someone wants me to look,
> they must give up the right to encumber me by the
> fact I looked.
In U.S. patent law you are bound whether you look or not,
whether you know or not, whether you independently
developed the idea or not. (Some other legal systems
have a safe harbor for independent development.)
A patent right is as self-subsisting as a property
right in land: it is no defense to trespassing that
you didn't know the land was not in the public
domain.
In the U.S. you implement totally at your peril.
--
Not to perambulate || John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
the corridors || http://www.reutershealth.com
during the hours of repose || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
in the boots of ascension. \\ Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel
|
