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Slightly off-topic but here's a question about patents that I just can't wrap my head around. Could you patent the contents of an RFC? If so, is it possible for
by alinajaf 15y ago
Slightly off-topic but here's a question about patents that I just can't wrap my head around. Could you patent the contents of an RFC? If so, is it possible for a company to patent the contents of all RFC's pertaining to TCP/IP and then essentially own the internet?
- derleth 15y agoIt's completely off-topic (this is about copyright law) but here's an answer anyway: Patents are ideally about new inventions, which means that if someone can find 'prior art' (evidence someone was doing it before you) they can get your patent thrown out. (Ideally, extant prior art prevents the patent from being issued in the first place.) An RFC, pretty much by definition, is very good evidence of prior art, especially if it's a very well-known one, as all of the ones relating to TCP/IP are. In the real world, things get not so much more complex as a whole lot stupider. Still, I think the courts could muddle through that one with minimal problems.