In Which I Get a Lesson in Patents

"I wanted to share with you a conversation I've been having with a retired EU patent attorney with hands-on experience with the US patent system as well. He was in the pharmaceutical field, where patents are All, of course, and so he presented me with a wonderful opportunity to learn. I asked him if I could please share what I'm learning with you, and he said I could.

"I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to compute when the date is that marks the precise year before which we need to find prior art to knock these patents out. And when do the patents expire? So when he sent me an email, expressing some disappointment that a patent infringement lawsuit had been filed against Red Hat and Novell, I saw a chance to learn..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Plaintiff: Open Source Not on Trial in Linux Suit(Oct 17, 2007)
• How To Kill The Patent Threat Against Linux(Oct 16, 2007)
• Should Open Source Fear Microsoft Patents?(Oct 13, 2007)
• Why Ballmer's Protection FUD Matters(Oct 12, 2007)