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On the other hand, if you read a patent and take in its ideas, and then act on them (say, by applying those ideas yourself), you may well have violated the pate
by thristian 15y ago
On the other hand, if you read a patent and take in its ideas, and then act on them (say, by applying those ideas yourself), you may well have violated the patent.
"Intellectual property" is more than just copyright.
- nkassis 15y agoFrom wikipedia's page on patents: "The term patent usually refers to an exclusive right granted to anyone who invents any new, useful, and non-obvious process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, and claims that right in a formal patent application" From what I underestand, the ideas themselves aren't patentable under this definition but the process or the invention that implements the idea is. (The idea of rolling on something isn't patentable but the shape of the wheel that makes that idea work would) In that sense software patents bend the rules.