[Gllug] [Fwd: [piksel] Outrageous disaster: Ogg/Vorbis spec taken out of HTML-5]

[Alain Williams]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 05:24:21PM +0000, James Roberts wrote:
> Alain Williams wrote:
> > The onus is on a s/ware developer/... to dig through all patents, and then
> > wait for the one that hasn't been made public to come & hit him.
> 
> Umm? Patents *are* public - by definition.

A submarine patent is one that sits in the 'pending' state for many years.
It is thus invisible but when it surfaces it can then be used to extract
cash for something that has become popular (partly because people thought
it was free).

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
Chairman of UKUUG: http://www.ukuug.org/
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
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