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So it is entirely legal for someone to take a patent, implement it in a lab and screw around with it. For sure. But these guys are making it publicly available

by 13ren 18y ago

So it is entirely legal for someone to take a patent, implement it in a lab and screw around with it. For sure. But these guys are making it publicly available. I think the test is not whether you make money from it, but whether it takes money away from the patent holder (or potentially does). Yes, most of them appear to be worthless (actually, I think 99%+ of all patents are worthless). The research labs of big technology corps think only some of their work is worth patenting - but I've seen at least one interesting idea there that wasn't in the academic literature... I think a low success rate is true for most research, most startups, most ideas =) ... things involving uncertainty and discovery. But if each play costs $ 000's, I agree it's a game for the rich (or the foolhardy/courageous/overconfident).

RobGR 18y ago
These guys are making the code publicly available. They are not making a search engine page that actually competes with google publically available. (Every search on aspseek.com returns no results.) Also, I don't think the test is commercial damage to the patent holder; it is commercial advantage to the patent violator. That's just the letter of the law, of course, and doesn't predict any actual court rulings, particularly in this era of pretty knee-jerk pro-corporate judges.