Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Some 1987 patents of interest
Message-ID: <1988Oct6.181909.901@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5511@hoptoad.uucp> <16406@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <352@laic.UUCP> <1663@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 88 18:19:09 GMT

In article <1663@sbcs.sunysb.edu> root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root) writes:
>	... patents create an unfair
>	monopoly (on sometimes trivial ideas, eg the Sun MMU Ras/Cas
>	timing).  When patents are awarded for such concepts they serve
>	only to stifle competition...

The patent laws already forbid patents on obvious ideas; it is not at all
clear that the Ras/Cas patent would hold up to a serious challenge.  One
should beware, however, of ideas that are "obvious" only after somebody else
has pointed them out -- that's not quite the same thing.

>	I suppose that if the patent laws
>	enforced some concept of fair use such that people were guaranteed
>	to be able to license a particular patent at a government established
>	rate...

While I tend to agree that mandatory licensing would be a good idea, I
think it's a mistake to create a government bureaucracy to set the rates.
In an ideal world that might work well; in this one it won't.  There's
got to be a better way.

>	I would modify computer patents laws to much shorter terms, eg 5
>	years...

That sounds sensible, provided it is applied specifically to fast-moving
fields.  In other areas -- drugs, for example -- it can take longer than
that just to get government approval to sell the stuff.
-- 
The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu