VanL

13 ms·

91.
by VanL 15y ago
I haven't looked at the patents that you mention, so I can't comment on your patent(s) specifically. I can comment on patents generally, though. I am a patent lawyer specializing in patent reexamination - i.e., my day-to-day job is evaluati
92.
by VanL 15y ago
Oracle is extremely aggressive about IP enforcement - and just because you haven't heard about it in court, doesn't mean that it isn't happening. Ninety-nine percent of these issues are settled quietly. I have been on the other side of lice
93.
by VanL 15y ago
Given Oracle's recent activities, I would guess that Ksplice's patent applications are the real prize. There are two that are published: The first is "Method of finding a safe time to modify code of a running computer program": http://bit.
94.
by VanL 15y ago
Rusty or Sol?
95.
by VanL 15y ago
This is right - there is always a need for humans at the end of the process. The problem is, though, that in traditional law firms many things that can be done by computers are done by humans. This has a couple of effects: 1. Soul-sucking
96.
by VanL 15y ago
I made an arrangement immediately when I started. I told them I do code on the side, and that I had other people that I worked with on that code. They agreed that they pay me for legal work, not for code. Thus, the tools I build are mine, b
97.
by VanL 15y ago
I am doing this with patents. Google "Killing patents with Python" if you want to see the presentation.
98.
by VanL 15y ago
Interesting - I would be interested in chatting with you too. I am a lawyer at a Big law firm. One of the things that I have been doing (which clients love) is writing software to automate or enhance parts of what I do.
99.
by VanL 15y ago
You think that you are being so extreme that it is ridiculous. Well, lawyers already went there: http://www.plotpatents.com/ "A Plot or Storyline Patent application seeks to patent the underlying novel and nonobvious storyline of a fictio
100.
by VanL 15y ago
In my opinion, there are only three times when patents are useful to startups: 1. There is a hard computer science (or other) problem at the very core of your product or service -- one that you have solved, that competitors have not, and th
101.
PyCon 2011 - Startup Row Finalists Announced(us.pycon.org)
25 points by VanL 16y ago|2 comments
102.
The 10 Python Conferences Happening at PyCon 2011 (Networking and Concurrency)(us.pycon.org)
4 points by VanL 16y ago|0 comments
103.
The 10 Python Conferences Happening at PyCon 2011 (part 3 - Python and NoSQL)(us.pycon.org)
6 points by VanL 16y ago|0 comments
104.
The 10 Python Conferences Happening at PyCon 2011 (part 2)(pycon.blogspot.com)
6 points by VanL 16y ago|0 comments
105.
The 10 Python Conferences Happening at PyCon 2011 (part 1)(pycon.blogspot.com)
15 points by VanL 16y ago|2 comments
106.
by VanL 16y ago
A couple notes. First, this is seed stage only. We are looking for Python-hacking founders generally. Second, we are limited on space - 16 total slots right now. Seven are filled, and 4-5 will be filled based upon people's performance at St
107.
Startup Row at PyCon 2011(us.pycon.org)
49 points by VanL 16y ago|9 comments
108.
by VanL 16y ago
To start with: IAAPL. In my opinion, there are only three times when software patents are useful: 1. There is a hard computer science problem at the very core of your product or service -- one that you have solved, that competitors have not
109.
Help influence which tutorials are presented at PyCon 2011(spreadsheets0.google.com)
4 points by VanL 16y ago|0 comments
110.
by VanL 16y ago
I found this article fascinating, as it disagrees so completely with my experience. The best lawyers I know are unfailingly courteous. My take is that this was written from a perspective where there has never been anything really significan
111.
by VanL 16y ago
Try Python. There is lots of interest in getting CPython to scale across multiple cores, but the use of refcounting to manage object lifetime and the Global Interpreter Lock makes it hard. If you want, you could even try to prototype using
112.
by VanL 16y ago
This is a better analysis than most, but it is unlikely that a court analyzing this would stop there. The court would probably use the Abstraction/Filtration/Comparison test. Take the code, filter out the abstract concepts, the purely funct
113.
Google hosting bulk downloads of USPTO information(google.com)
4 points by VanL 16y ago|1 comments
114.
by VanL 16y ago
Hmm, I will have to go back and review what I said to see if I misspoke. The basic issue is that open source licenses are copyright licenses, and so their enforceability is tied to the scope of copyright. The scope of copyright as applied t
115.
by VanL 16y ago
I am the person Zed is talking about. I am not sure what Zed heard/read, but it seems clear that he is taking something out of context. Of course the GPL applies to Python. It goes just as far as copyright does... which is just not as far a
116.
by VanL 16y ago
This is right. Patents and patent games really only become important when you have enough money that people care about trying to take some of it away. For tech startups, execution is 100x more important. IAAPL, and the only time when I wou
117.
by VanL 17y ago
Update 2: See also the PSF blog: http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-search-of-success-sto...
118.
by VanL 17y ago
Hmm. It is, but right now I can't prove it. I will see if we can get the survey promoted on the PSF blog or on python.org. Update: See the front page of PyCon.org: http://us.pycon.org/2010/
119.
by VanL 17y ago
<blink>. Missed that. The form has been updated.
120.
Does your company use Python? The Python Software Foundation wants to know.(spreadsheets.google.com)
41 points by VanL 17y ago|21 comments

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