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strokes-mode and touchscreen patents? was Re: emacs and touchscreen
From: |
Stephen J. Turnbull |
Subject: |
strokes-mode and touchscreen patents? was Re: emacs and touchscreen |
Date: |
Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:56:24 +0900 |
David O'Toole writes:
> Something occurred to me today after watching my touchscreen
> strokes-mode video. Could the gesture recognition in strokes.el either
> 1. be threatened by patents that existed prior to 1997 (the first year
> of copyright listed in strokes.el) or 2. qualify as prior art for
> techniques patented later?
1. Yes. But why limit to earlier patents? It infringes patents
granted afterward, as well. Once a patent is granted, it is the
defendent's problem to break the patent, not the patentholder's
problem to justify the patent. This is very costly even if you
have rock-solid prior art.
2. Yes. But see point 1 for why this doesn't really matter to you
unless you're really rich.