[Discussioni] pooling patents for progress and protection

[Emanuele Olivetti]

Potra' anche andare bene per le 'small innovative companies', ma a noi
altri ci taglia fuori di nuovo, come sempre.

Promuovere poi la brevettabilita' in generale mi sembra proprio contrario
alle idee del Software Libero che sicuramente Rik van Riel conosce bene.

Dove sta la liberta' nel definire un'elite che ha diritti contro un
pubblico che non li ha?
Non ritengo che la strada giusta per contenere i problemi creati dai
brevetti software delle 'big companies' debba passare di qui.

Ma siamo sicuri che queste cose le scriva proprio lui?

							Emanuele

On Sun, Dec 29, 2002 at 10:18:21PM -0200, Rik van Riel wrote:
> 
> 	Pooling patents for progress and protection
> 
> 		Rik van Riel <riel a surriel.com>
> 			december 26-30, 2002
> 
> 
> The goal of patents is to promote technical progress and inventions;
> however the patent system is often abused by big patent holders to block
> entry to the marketplace by new and small companies, thus hampering
> technical progress instead of promoting it.
> 
> My goals are to give small innovative companies a fair chance again and
> promoting technical progress and innovation once more, all while following
> the rules of the patent game to the letter.
> 
> The basic ideas behind the patent pool idea are:
> 
> 1) Any person or organisation can participate by contributing all of
>    his/her/its patents to the pool.
> 
> 2) Contributing a patent to the pool means giving every participant
>    the right to use the technology described in the patent, while
>    gaining the right to use the technology described in all the other
>    patents in the pool.
> 
> 3) Each participant can use all of the patents in the pool for
>    defensive purposes, when faced with a patent infringement lawsuit.
>    I'm not yet sure what legal construction can be used to achieve this
>    effect, but it is important that all the participants can rely on
>    the whole patent pool to defend themselves against patent infringement,
>    using the standard "but you're infringing on my patents, too" counter
>    suit trick that almost always leads to a cross-licensing agreement.
> 
> 4) A participant can withdraw from the patent pool, losing the rights to
>    use the patent pool for protection in the future.  However, once a
>    patent has been contributed to the pool, that patent cannot be
>    withdrawn from the pool and will stay in the pool until the patent
>    expires; this to protect the other participants in the pool.
> 
> 5) If a participant's last patent in the pool expires, the participant
>    needs to do an invention and contribute a new patent to the pool.
>    This clause is present because the patent pool should promote
>    technical progress and inventions, like patents are supposed to.
> 
> 6) Participants retain the right to grant usage rights on their
>    technology to anybody else for any reason, outside of this agreement.
>    This includes cross-licensing agreements with third parties, granting
>    the right to the use of the technology in non-profit or free software
>    situations, etc...
> 
> 
> This patent pool is primarily meant for small inventors and companies,
> who have few patents each and are a frequent target for bullying and
> predatory practices by large patent holders, who use patents as a way
> to prevent small companies from entering the market, thereby stifling
> technical progress itself.
> 
> This patent pool should:
> 1) protect inventors and companies making products
> 2) promote technical progress
> 3) be a win-win play for all participants
> 
> If you have an idea on how to improve this patent pool idea to better
> suit these goals, or if you have an additional goal you think should be
> included, please let me know.
> 
> Feel free to share this document with other people.
> 
> 
> 	Rik van Riel <riel a surriel.com>
> 
> 
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