*BSD News Article 7317


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From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Interface monopolies
	Re: Patents:  What they are.  What they aren't.  Other factors.
Message-ID: <id.DYMU._TB@ferranti.com>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
References: <1992Oct27.172831.22782@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <id.SSJU.KXL@ferranti.com> <1992Oct31.043526.11350@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1992 19:12:40 GMT
Lines: 13

In article <1992Oct31.043526.11350@fcom.cc.utah.edu> terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
> Look-and-feel suits are based on a platform of copyright infringement, not
> patent infringement.  This is the type of "software patent" I'm against, since
> copyright protection can be maintained *much* longer than patent protection.

I refer to these (and the Hayes patent, for example) as interface monopolies.
I think that they are a much bigger problem than algorithm patents in the long
run, but right now I'm just watching to see what happens.
-- 
% Peter da Silva % 77487-5012 % +1 713 274 5180 % Har du kramat din varg idag?
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