Re: Negotiating for using Royalty Free patents

[Mike Hearn <mike navi cx>]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 13:23:06 -0600, Ryan McDougall wrote:
> I agree with all the points people have raised, but no one has addressed
> the issue of actually asking the companies, or whether the GNOME
> Foundation should be using their "inside contacts", or even just their
> leadership position, to begin doing the footwork involved in convincing
> these companies.

First mistake: I already addressed that. I said you were smoking crack
and it was a waste of time, basically.
 
> Apples drawer
> patent is so obviously obvious (#6133918) it boggles the mind that it
> was even granted. Although I guess thats why they only use them for
> defence, they'd be laughed out of court if they tried pressing their
> luck.

Second mistake: raising specific patents on a public mailing list. I
thought this had been covered a thousand times already - you do NOT talk
about specific patents in a public free software forum!

> That doesn't change our position though: we need a better policy than
> "head in the sand/don't ask-don't tell". 

Third mistake: assuming people haven't thought about this. The sorry state
of patent law in the world today makes this the only reasonable policy I'm
afraid.

> I represent a major desktop project for Free Software operating systems
> (http://www.gnome.org) and I was wondering if there was an individual I
> could speak to regarding licensing Apple patented GUI elements, such as
> "Spring Loaded Folders" (#6061061) or "Drawers" (#6133918), to cite just
> two specific examples.

Fourth mistake: you do not, and never have, represent the GNOME project.
 
> As is common knowledge in the software community, many software patents
> are overly broad and easily cover many softwares products or projects
> who may have "violated" them unknowingly, or thinking the method was far
> too obvious to be patented. Yet more software patents are voided by much
> prior art, where the patent applicant or patent office was negligent in
> their research, hoping small developers won't have the resources to
> fight back.

Fifth mistake: thinking Apples IP lawyers give a shit. I can assure you
they don't - they *like* this situation and giving them slashdot-style
logic will not change that.
 
Please, "negotiating" with these companies is unlikely to go anywhere and
will probably just make the situation worse. In future if you want to take
action like this, at least the very least clear it with Free Software
Foundation/GNOME Foundation first.

thanks -mike