[MURG] Uploading IP (intellectual property)

[Joseph J. Strout]

At 5:31 AM -0500 3/2/04, Randal A. Koene wrote:

>Right. But if the original research is patented, could the original
>researcher forbid the use of that research for any extensions that would
>be patented in a "bad" way? In short, could it give leverage the way the
>GNU GPL does in copyrights?

No, I don't think so.  If the extensions merit a patent, then they 
are considered a new invention and the original patenter would be 
unlikely to win any lawsuit he might bring to bear, or so I believe 
(usual disclaimers apply).

These are fairly standard patent tricks; you try to make a patent's 
claims as general as possible because otherwise, somebody can make a 
simple modification to what you did and thereby get around your 
patent.  But the more general the claims are, the less likely the 
patent application would be approved.

Copyright law is different; you're talking there about actually using 
material written by another, and there is substantially more 
protection against that.

Best,
- Joe

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