[LINK] Questions re patents

[Craig Sanders]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2013 at 10:47:29AM +1100, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> In the past I've tried to avoid patents, but I think I need to get
> some idea how they work.
>
> If a patent claim has three methods, objects, features, or advantages
> (I'll call them features)
>
> Which of these is a potential infringement?:

IANAL but as i understand it, you have to use *all* claimed features in
order to infringe a patent.

> 1) A system that includes all three features and no more features

infringing

> 2) A system that includes all three features plus several more, 
> different, features

infringing

> 3) A system that includes two of the features and no more features

not infringing

> 4) A system that includes two of the features and several more,
> different, features

not infringing (but beware of broad, vague claims that may cover your
different features)

> Or, to generalise, if I want to achieve the same end but in a
> different manner, what do I have to do to avoid infringing the patent?
>
> Or have I completely misunderstood the way patents work?

it is almost certain that no matter what you do or how you do it, you
will be infringing some-one's patent for something or other.

many patent applications are written with broad, vague and sweeping
claims in order to make it impossible to avoid infringing a patent
- effectively claiming ownership over general ideas and half-formed
notions rather than specific inventions.

this is part of a general corporate theft of the commons to turn
everything - language, ideas, thoughts, culture, discoveries about
the natural world - into property from which monopoly rents can be
extracted.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

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