[Discussioni] i brevetti per cui RH&N sono in causa scadranno presto

[Francesco Potorti`]

Una cosa interessante circa i brevetti che Red Hat e Novell sono
accusati di violare è che scadranno molto presto, fra poco più di un
anno.  È quindi evidente che questa causa non è intentata per mungere
quattrini, ma per altri motivi.  La storia su Groklaw, al solito.

Ecco un estratto da
<http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071016234739918>:

All three involved patents should expire December 10, 2008. This means
that it's a bit of a puzzle why such a suit has been brought. Normal
patentees would be on the whole unlikely to bring expensive patent
infringement lawsuits on the basis of patents which are just about to
expire.

That's mainly because the litigation can be expected to last until well
after the expiry date. After patent expiry, the patentee can no longer
get any injunction to stop further infringing trade, because that has by
then become free to the public. The possibility of getting an injunction
is normally one of the main incentives, often the biggest incentive,
that motivates bringing suit for patent infringement. Once the patent
has become history, the patentee is normally better advised to
concentrate on other means of maintaining its competitive position.

After expiry, the only real issue left is usually compensation for
infringements that took place before expiry. The expected back royalties
or damages have to be very large before it can normally make business
sense to sue over the historical usage.

I suppose that raises a question here whether this action is really
being brought mainly for some ulterior reason, to try and make an
example out of the defendants, or to cause them heavy legal expenses, or
as some other kind of a demonstration, maybe an attempted softening-up
to convince the defendants and the public that they are going to have
continuing vulnerability to patent infringement problems for various
parts of the GNU/Linux operating system.

I haven't looked at the claims or specifications here at all, nor which
specific parts of the system have been targeted with the infringement
claims, let alone any prior art. Novell and Red Hat are going to have to
spend a lot of money having people do that.