5 ms·

> Of course they knew that this could happen. > It's likely that an engineer won't understand that they're building the intellectual equivalent of a land mine

> Of course they knew that this could happen. > It's likely that an engineer won't understand that they're building the intellectual equivalent of a land mine You're contradicting yourself.

CamperBob2 10y ago
You're contradicting yourself. How so? In my own case, I knew that the patent I was helping my company's attorneys to file was a valuable property that the company would own and possibly sell. But I didn't contemplate what could happen after such a sale, once the patent ended up in the hands of a nonpracticing entity. I was pretty naive about things like that, even though the XOR cursor patent that eventually helped bring down Commodore was already on the books, and the good folks at Unisys who bought the LZ77 patent were already running roughshod over everyone using .GIF image files. All I knew was that I wanted a new road bike, and the patent committee was only too happy to pay for it.
- gcb0 10y ago
  and they make a very good argument to the kids wanting a new road bike that it will be a defensive patent. whatever that means.
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    True, but this was so long ago that they didn't even bother. Nobody cared about the potential ethics issues at the time, because patents were still largely weapons wielded between corporate superpowers.
- kmiroslav 10y ago
  > In my own case, I knew that the patent I was helping my company's attorneys to file was a valuable property that the company would own and possibly sell. But I didn't contemplate what could happen after such a sale Seriously?
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "Seriously?" It's interesting to receive snarky replies and be modded down to goatse.cx territory for posting an honest, factual account of events that took place over 25 years ago that I've come to regret participating in. But it's also puzzling, because the people who disagree with me aren't stating why.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      > But it's also puzzling, because the people who disagree with me aren't stating why. Because they would never sell out. /s
    - tobltobs 10y ago
      Because Stallmann told you so.
    - kmiroslav 10y ago
      Sorry, I thought it would be obvious. My point was that when you sell something, you have no idea what it will be used for, period. If you're uncomfortable with this idea, don't sell the item in the first place. Saying "I filed my patent but how could I possibly guess what my employer would do with it?" is a baffling defense to me.
      - CamperBob2 10y ago
        You have to go back to the early 1990s, back before patent trolling was really a big concern. The writing was on the wall but nobody was reading. Today I think the "land mine" metaphor is an almost perfect way to describe patents, but I certainly didn't think that way back then, and neither did most people. Filing patents was just something you did if you worked for a Real Company, and a nice feather in your cap as a junior-level engineer. That's the part I may not have stated clearly enough. This isn't exactly something that happened last week.
- biztos 10y ago
  Despite having owned an Amiga, I didn't know about the XOR patent. Here's a brief summary I found: https://plus.google.com/+RayCromwell/posts/dbipY1GJoGv https://plus.google.com/+RayCromwell/posts/dbipY1GJoGv

> Of course they knew that this could happen. > It's likely that an engineer won't understand that they're building the intellectual equivalent of a land mine You're contradicting yourself.

CamperBob2 10y ago

You're contradicting yourself. How so? In my own case, I knew that the patent I was helping my company's attorneys to file was a valuable property that the company would own and possibly sell. But I didn't contemplate what could happen after such a sale, once the patent ended up in the hands of a nonpracticing entity. I was pretty naive about things like that, even though the XOR cursor patent that eventually helped bring down Commodore was already on the books, and the good folks at Unisys who bought the LZ77 patent were already running roughshod over everyone using .GIF image files. All I knew was that I wanted a new road bike, and the patent committee was only too happy to pay for it.

gcb0 10y ago
and they make a very good argument to the kids wanting a new road bike that it will be a defensive patent. whatever that means.
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  True, but this was so long ago that they didn't even bother. Nobody cared about the potential ethics issues at the time, because patents were still largely weapons wielded between corporate superpowers.
kmiroslav 10y ago
> In my own case, I knew that the patent I was helping my company's attorneys to file was a valuable property that the company would own and possibly sell. But I didn't contemplate what could happen after such a sale Seriously?
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "Seriously?" It's interesting to receive snarky replies and be modded down to goatse.cx territory for posting an honest, factual account of events that took place over 25 years ago that I've come to regret participating in. But it's also puzzling, because the people who disagree with me aren't stating why.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    > But it's also puzzling, because the people who disagree with me aren't stating why. Because they would never sell out. /s
  - tobltobs 10y ago
    Because Stallmann told you so.
  - kmiroslav 10y ago
    Sorry, I thought it would be obvious. My point was that when you sell something, you have no idea what it will be used for, period. If you're uncomfortable with this idea, don't sell the item in the first place. Saying "I filed my patent but how could I possibly guess what my employer would do with it?" is a baffling defense to me.
    - CamperBob2 10y ago
      You have to go back to the early 1990s, back before patent trolling was really a big concern. The writing was on the wall but nobody was reading. Today I think the "land mine" metaphor is an almost perfect way to describe patents, but I certainly didn't think that way back then, and neither did most people. Filing patents was just something you did if you worked for a Real Company, and a nice feather in your cap as a junior-level engineer. That's the part I may not have stated clearly enough. This isn't exactly something that happened last week.
biztos 10y ago
Despite having owned an Amiga, I didn't know about the XOR patent. Here's a brief summary I found: https://plus.google.com/+RayCromwell/posts/dbipY1GJoGv https://plus.google.com/+RayCromwell/posts/dbipY1GJoGv