[Novalug] M$ patents sudo - unbelievable!

[Bonnie Dalzell]

On Fri, 13 Nov 2009, Peter Larsen wrote:

> On Fri, 2009-11-13 at 18:26 -0500, Sean McGowan wrote:
>
>> http://gizmodo.com/5402796/microsoft-patents-the-sudo-command
>
> Well, not exactly but close ...
> I wonder if you can appeal crazy stupid patents like that? Show them an
> old BSD version of sudo?

It is my understanding that the defense against a patent is called "prior 
art" and it is also my understanding that for the last several years the 
patent office has been underfunded so a lot of patents have been issued 
which are actually invalid because of prior art. It is also my 
understanding that to overturn a patent one has to go to court. However 
if the owner of the fallicious patent tries to collect from people and 
they fight it in court and successfully bring up the prior art 
arguement then the patent holder looses.

I am not a patent attorney and others on this list may well know more 
about this.


>
>

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                        Bonnie Dalzell, MA
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