🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1727@opus.NMSU.Edu> sitze@nmsu.edu (Richard Sitze) writes:
>As long as this state of affairs continues to exist, please quit
>complaining about those who HAVE patents and wish to protect them.
>Complaining is just noise, do something about it (as many of you 
>have/are) if you don't like it.

 I think we have the right to complain. A patent should in my
understanding only be granted if the idea is novel. If the rest of the
community is already doing something then the invention is not novel.

 The IDEA of numerical addition is not patentable. The invention of a
notation for addition (ie 1 + 1 = 2) is. However, as some 80% of the
planet already use this particular invention I cannot have it
patented.

 As the vast majority of networked systems (in particular UNIX
systems) already use network byte ordering the invention is not
patentable and we SHOULD be complaining to have the patent revoked.

>If Mark Williams owns the patent on byte ordering, so be it.  THEY
>HAVE THE RIGHT to protect their patent which they appear to be doing.
>(I'm not defending Mark Williams Co. as the originator of the concept,
>just as the OWNER of the concept - the courts will have to decide..)

 However, I must agree that under in current (the-)law(-is-an-ass)
they do have the right to protect it. We must therefore fight to get
it revoked.


Cheers,

	Ian

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ian Fitchet                               | "Have you heard the one about the
FitchetI@uk.ac.bham.cs                    | orangutan and the pomegranate?"
FitchetI%cs.bham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | 	- Gerald the Gorilla (NTNO'CN)