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Re: OT: Unmining a patent through ecos
- From: Jonathan Larmour <jifl at jifvik dot org>
- To: Philippe Fremy <phil at freehackers dot org>
- Cc: ecos-discuss at sources dot redhat dot com, dgil at ieee dot org
- Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 01:12:11 +0100
- Subject: Re: [ECOS] OT: Unmining a patent through ecos
- References: <200306241839.10636.phil@freehackers.org>
Philippe Fremy wrote:
Basically, they claim to patent message passing between two "applications"
using a reserved memory area and a flag.
They say specifically in the context of smartcards, but of course this is
at best obvious, but I'm certain (as no doubt are you) that there's prior
art. I don't know of any people who have done smartcards with eCos
unfortunately, but maybe they'll speak up.
I feel obliged to observe that the US patent office is a complete waste of
space, merely rubberstamping anything thrust under their noses and instead
leaving it to the courts to sort out at massive expense, and frequently
bullying of smaller businesses.
Unfortunately, the EU has also been threatening software patents for some
time as well, and I only hope they see sense, but unfortunately like all
very big government, they listen more to big business than real people and
small businesses.
The free software community must fight against software patents as they
are no longer the tool of the small business to preserve their invention,
but of big business to bully or bankrupt small businesses and discourage
the spread of information. There's more information at
<http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/prop/index.en.html> and a
call for action at
<http://swpat.ffii.org/papiere/eubsa-swpat0202/appell/index.en.html>.
The EU parliament is meant to be debating this "at the end of this month",
although I don't know exactly when. So write *now* to your MEP while you
can still voice an opinion.
US citizens can act too by writing to their government representatives,
but at the very minimum, there's the Petition Against Software Patents:
<http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html> )and on a related
note, the FSF also mentions the Anti-DMCA Petition:
<http://www.petitiononline.com/nixdmca/petition.html>)
> Do you have anything similar in
eCos or do you know where I could find public proof that this idea has been
used before the patent ? Would be nice if such prior evidence is found on
some embedded hardware.
Post to the comp.arch.embedded newsgroup too.
Jifl
--
--[ "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you ]--
--[ can rejoice because thorns have roses." -Lincoln ]-- Opinions==mine
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