Debian Developers - Re: patents and software, not software patents [was: Is anyone packaging `lame' ?]

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Re: patents and software, not software patents [was: Is anyone packaging `lame' ?]

Matthew Palmer

2004-12-27, 5:52 pm

On Mon, Dec 27, 2004 at 03:26:35PM +0100, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis) wrote:
> On Monday 27 December 2004 14:58, Florian Weimer wrote:
>
> You lost me there:
> how can something that's explicitly excluded from being covered by patents
> possibly infringe a patent?

I presume that what Florian means is that, while you cannot patent a
software invention, an implementation in software of a patented process or
mechanism (which is otherwise implemented in some non-software form) is
still an infringement of the patent.

It wouldn't happen real often, but I can certainly imagine a few cases where
such a thing could happen.

- Matt