[LINK] Is it unethical to infringe a patent?

[Geoff Ramadan]

Brendan Scott wrote:
> Gordon Keith wrote:
>> On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:06, Brendan Scott wrote:
>>
>>> (a) would it be unethical to infringe a patent?  (eg: exercise a patent
>>> without the permission of the patent holder)
>> Knowingly or unknowingly?
> 
> The law doesn't make that distinction in determining whether an infringement has occurred (because when sued, everyone would plead ignorance), on what basis should the question make that distinction? 
> 

I thought you were asking a question about "ethics" not "law".

I also had he same initial thought (Knowingly/unknowingly)

As a design company, I would feel unethical in knowingly infringing on some one 
else's patents as well as being concerned about putting the company at risk.

If we designed something that infringed on a patent unknowingly, then I would 
have no ethical issues. I see the onus on the patent holder to protect their 
interest as it would be impossible for us check "possible" patents infringements 
when we design things.

However, in practical terms, it would be an issue of risk assessment that would 
determine if we would make the effort to check patents.

Also thinking about it, I would have no ethical issues in infringing a patent 
that we thought was trivial or unworthy of being patentable in the first place! 
(I can think of some examples of this)

Reg
Geoffrey Ramadan


> 
> Brendan 
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link