Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ?

[Robert Bonomi]

> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 14:34:35 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Daniel Rudy <dr2867 at pacbell.net>
> Subject: Re:  Patent hit - MS goes after Linux - FreeBSD ?
>
> ......  A big difference between copyright 
> and patents is that copyright is constitutional (Article 1, Section 8, 
> Clause 8), patents are not. 

FALSE TO FACT.

 Quoting from Article 1, Section 8:

   "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for 
    limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their 
    respective writings and discoveries,:

Congress is _expressly_ authorized to secure "for limited times to ...
invetors the esclusive right to their ... inventions".

>                              The reason why patents came up was that back 
> around 1900 when automobile manufacturing was getting started, companies 
> would copy each   others ideas.  You come up with something, then a week 
>  competitors stole your idea and was implementing it in their products.  

Pure, undiluted, male bovine excrement.  <grin>

Fact: the U.S. had been issuing patents for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS by 
that time.  The first patent under the _current_ numbering sytem was 
issued on July 13, 1836, with 9,957 patents issued prior to that
numberinng system -- the first of which was issued o 7/4, 1790.

Now, applying for a patent =was= a convoluted, lengthy (as in -years-),
and time-consuming, process -- which a lot of inventors did -not- bother
with, unless they saw relatiely "immmediate" opportunities for it to 
generate commercial revenue.  And such 'unprotected' work _was_ 'fair
game' for copying.  Which was a _good_ thing for the then-nascent auto-
motive industry.  Imagine the mayhem if somebody had pateted the
steering wheel, the gear-shift lever/mechanism, or the arrangement of
the foot-pedals.   Somebody who learned to drive a Ford, wouldn't be
able to drive an Olds, etc.