Quote:
Originally Posted by geekmaster
I did not mean prior art for THIS patent (sorry for the confusion).
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Prior Art searches can become very time (or money) consuming.
For the non-USA readers, a "PriorArt" search is a requirement here.
There are also the basic requirements of "Novel and Non-Obvious" (to an expert in the field).
So in this instance, I thought I would start with those two points by asking someone "who should know" as an "expert in the field".
There are also the filings of "Trivial Patents" in the software field, same as in the mechanical field. Ones that are the software equivalent of patenting Fire or the Wheel.
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Hmm...
I had better make a position statement for the followers of this thread:
I personally oppose the concept of "Software Patents" but I also know that there are also those who avidly support them.
I hope to find a path that will satisfy both sides here -
Where those who support SP will not feel they are "giving away trade secrets"; and:
Where those who oppose SP will not feel their contribution will become part of any SP.
The issue of Copyright in a community supported project is (relatively) easy to handle - the policy statement here is: "The Author Retains any Copyright" - the author wrote it, it is theirs.
And the project uses that authorship work under the terms of whatever license the author might grant.
Note to non-USA readers: Just attaching your name as author to any work of authorship is usually sufficient in the USA (the country of publication in this case) to establish a copyright interest.
Too bad our patent laws aren't that simple.
Just in case any reader has gotten lost in this thread -
The subject of the moment is "rights" associated with any contributed filter configuration. (The filter configuration file itself that is contributed is a "work of authorship" - subject to copyright here.)