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If you can be sure that the implementation wouldn't be encumbered by a patent, then yes. But, you can't be sure that you still wouldn't get sued. Although, if t

by mbreese 14y ago

If you can be sure that the implementation wouldn't be encumbered by a patent, then yes. But, you can't be sure that you still wouldn't get sued. Although, if the API isn't publicly available, I'm not sure it is so clear. You've always needed to be able to implement APIs in order to have compatibility, so in essence, this decision puts into case-law what what already assumed to be the case.

EternalFury 14y ago
OK, let me clarify. Let's say a software vendor out there is making a ton of money with a product that exposes a certain API. Let's say I know a way to implement that API in such a manner that its performance will be improved by an order of magnitude. (without using any patented method in my implementation) Can I put together that implementation and market it as a competitive product? In my experience, APIs of commercial products are disclosed under the terms of their licensing agreement. So, one could argue that I cannot market a competitive implementation, if the license terms I agreed to (to gain knowledge of the API itself) prevent me to do so.
- harshreality 14y ago
  If you agreed to a license or NDA prohibiting you from competing, that might be enforceable under contract law, but that is neither related to copyright nor patents. Assuming a case where there's no contract involved, patents are typically what would cause trouble. The original implementor will typically have a patent on some silly thing their software does, and you have to do that thing to make a compatible implementation, so they sue you for violating their patents.
  - EternalFury 14y ago
    A lot of things out there are very dumbly implemented and you can implement them better easily. Patent-heavy code is fairly rare (maybe 10% of all enterprise applications) in my experience. To go back to my question, there are a lot of entrenched players out there who rely on an age-old user base to keep afloat. If you can provide a better implementation without asking them to rebuild their client applications, their customers will have an easy road to migrate towards your implementation.
- krschultz 14y ago
  I think if it were a publically available API you'd have a pretty fair shot at it. Start with the Google Maps or Google Charts one, it would be hard for them to turn around and sue you after having just won a case to the contrary.

by mbreese 14y ago

EternalFury 14y ago

OK, let me clarify. Let's say a software vendor out there is making a ton of money with a product that exposes a certain API. Let's say I know a way to implement that API in such a manner that its performance will be improved by an order of magnitude. (without using any patented method in my implementation) Can I put together that implementation and market it as a competitive product? In my experience, APIs of commercial products are disclosed under the terms of their licensing agreement. So, one could argue that I cannot market a competitive implementation, if the license terms I agreed to (to gain knowledge of the API itself) prevent me to do so.

harshreality 14y ago
If you agreed to a license or NDA prohibiting you from competing, that might be enforceable under contract law, but that is neither related to copyright nor patents. Assuming a case where there's no contract involved, patents are typically what would cause trouble. The original implementor will typically have a patent on some silly thing their software does, and you have to do that thing to make a compatible implementation, so they sue you for violating their patents.
- EternalFury 14y ago
  A lot of things out there are very dumbly implemented and you can implement them better easily. Patent-heavy code is fairly rare (maybe 10% of all enterprise applications) in my experience. To go back to my question, there are a lot of entrenched players out there who rely on an age-old user base to keep afloat. If you can provide a better implementation without asking them to rebuild their client applications, their customers will have an easy road to migrate towards your implementation.
krschultz 14y ago
I think if it were a publically available API you'd have a pretty fair shot at it. Start with the Google Maps or Google Charts one, it would be hard for them to turn around and sue you after having just won a case to the contrary.