23 Aug, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 141st comment:
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You are missing the point, Rarva. I suspect that you are understanding the word "political" the wrong way. Obviously, every country has different laws. But when you start insulting a country, you are dramatically changing the discussion. Stating facts such as "in country X1 you can patent Y but in country X2 you cannot" is not really a political statement. You, however, stated political ideology, while insulting others, and that is what belongs in the controversial topics section.
23 Aug, 2010, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 142nd comment:
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David Haley said:
You are missing the point, Rarva. I suspect that you are understanding the word "political" the wrong way. Obviously, every country has different laws. But when you start insulting a country, you are dramatically changing the discussion. Stating facts such as "in country X1 you can patent Y but in country X2 you cannot" is not really a political statement. You, however, stated political ideology, while insulting others, and that is what belongs in the controversial topics section.

The conversation is definitely off topic, but patents are a political problem, as patents are backed by law that are voted by politics, and USA tries to force Europe to act with patents the same way USA do. ACTA is proof of that. About insulting, I do not think I am insulting when I talk about a country, and I would not be insulted if you talk about how stupid are our laws and our governement either. Why ? because I cannot do a thing about it….
23 Aug, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 143rd comment:
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Well, I'm glad that you don't find it insulting; nonetheless, please keep such comments to the controversial section.
23 Aug, 2010, Rudha wrote in the 144th comment:
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Rarva.Riendf said:
Heh patent are a political problem in the first place, only in the USA can you patent obvious methods…


Canada, Britain, Japan, Switzerland … you name a major country and chances are exceedingly high they have a patent office or some sort of institution as regards patents. In fact, the original patent that was discussed, was patented first in Japan, and then in the United States, if I read right.

(Canada: Canadian Intellectual Property Office: http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipoin... )
(Japan: Japan Patent Office: http://www.jpo.go.jp/ )
(Switzerland: Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property: https://www.ige.ch/en.html )

The United States' system, for all its flaws, is probably one of the leading ones in the world.

Maya/Rudha
23 Aug, 2010, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 145th comment:
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Rudha said:
The United States' system, for all its flaws, is probably one of the leading ones in the world.

You are even patenting natural living things. Yeah definitely the leading one. You know there are some fields some people definitely do not want to be a leader in…
23 Aug, 2010, Rudha wrote in the 146th comment:
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Rarva.Riendf said:
Rudha said:
The United States' system, for all its flaws, is probably one of the leading ones in the world.

You are even patenting natural living things. Yeah definitely the leading one. You know there are some fields some people definitely do not want to be a leader in…


"I" am not the United States. Forgetting for a moment that one person cannot ever be representative of a whole country, I am Canadian. (In case elvenblade.ca didn't give that away :P )

Maya/Rudha
23 Aug, 2010, ATT_Turan wrote in the 147th comment:
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Interesting fact that I didn't know about until about a year and a half ago: various free musical programs you may have seen floating around (if you are American), such as a string quartet giving a concert at a local library, or an orchestra doing a pops concert in the park, are funded primarily by the national musician's union out of an account filled with income from record sales. This income has taken such a dramatic hit in recent times that, when I was told about this, the treasurer predicted that within the next five years no place in America would be able to give publicly free concerts anymore.

I'm not sure what is more sad - the loss of these opportunities to the average citizen, or the fact that the people taking it from them think they are doing no harm.

Also, Rarva, I gather you are not a native English speaker; nonetheless, the word is spelled "deprive". I'm surprised Mr. Haley, being a patent lawyer, didn't mention your repeated misstep.
23 Aug, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 148th comment:
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ATT_Turan said:
I'm surprised Mr. Haley, being a patent lawyer, didn't mention your repeated misstep.

:blues:
23 Aug, 2010, Runter wrote in the 149th comment:
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David has a soft spot for french sensibilities. That's why he's soft playing.
23 Aug, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 150th comment:
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Rudha said:
Canada, Britain, Japan, Switzerland … you name a major country and chances are exceedingly high they have a patent office or some sort of institution as regards patents. In fact, the original patent that was discussed, was patented first in Japan, and then in the United States, if I read right.

The United States and Japan both allow software patents. Europe doesn't (at least not directly, although of course it's never quite that simple).

On a more general note…

Personally I'm not a fan of software patents, but this is the Legal Issues forum, and if someone asks for advice about a patent I think it's highly irresponsible to suggest they ignore it. In an ideal world you'd speak to a lawyer before making any important legal decisions, but that's rarely a financially viable option for a hobby developer, which is why we end up seeing questions like this. We may not be lawyers, but we should still try to stick to verifiable legal facts, and not start suggesting courses of action based on personal moral/ethical opinions.
23 Aug, 2010, Koron wrote in the 151st comment:
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Attention everyone: you are not a lawyer. I'm not either.

That said, I'm fairly confident that you cannot patent something like the light bulb. Sure, if you invent the compact fluorescent light bulb, you can get the sole right to produce it, but that doesn't stop anyone else from making a device that generates light (i.e. the fancy red laser pointer or the ubiquitous incandescent bulb). If someone else comes up with a better way to do something without using your methods, you're pretty much just fucked.
23 Aug, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 152nd comment:
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Koron said:
That said, I'm fairly confident that you cannot patent something like the light bulb. Sure, if you invent the compact fluorescent light bulb, you can get the sole right to produce it, but that doesn't stop anyone else from making a device that generates light (i.e. the fancy red laser pointer or the ubiquitous incandescent bulb). If someone else comes up with a better way to do something without using your methods, you're pretty much just fucked.

I don't think that was ever under dispute here…? :thinking:
23 Aug, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 153rd comment:
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Koron said:
That said, I'm fairly confident that you cannot patent something like the light bulb.

Thomas Edison's Patent Application for t...
23 Aug, 2010, Koron wrote in the 154th comment:
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@David: It sort of was in the context of the idea of creating something along the lines of the FF-style battle system.

@KaVir: Back then he was coining the phrase. Someone else could still have created and patented the LED bulb if they had been innovative enough for it because it is an entirely different can of worms.
23 Aug, 2010, Cratylus wrote in the 155th comment:
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Koron said:
@David: It sort of was in the context of the idea of creating something along the lines of the FF-style battle system.

@KaVir: Back then he was coining the phrase. Someone else could still have created and patented the LED bulb if they had been innovative enough for it because it is an entirely different can of worms.


You should check out google's patent search. There really are some oddly simple things what have patents.
23 Aug, 2010, Runter wrote in the 156th comment:
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Yet another moth to the flame.
23 Aug, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 157th comment:
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Koron phrased his sentence somewhat sloppily, but if you read the very next one, you will note that he draws the distinction between the concept of a light-generating device on the one hand (which he says you cannot patent) and the implementations of a CFL or incandescent bulb (which he says you can patent). When Koron said "<you cannot patent a> light bulb", he means light-generating device, not incandescent; Edison's patent was for the latter even though he termed it "light bulb" (and indeed in common vernacular most people think of "light bulb" as the same thing as "incandescent").
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