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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>For something to be patentable it needs to be not previously
known, unique, unobvious, and useful. It needs to pass the patent examiner who
will look to prior art to challenge the inventor’s claim of those
parameters. Also, unless the individual assigns the rights to someone else, say
as a condition of employment, the patent belongs to the inventor, even if the
firm the inventor is working for is paying the inventor a salary. But these are
moot points with software that is open source.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Kevin Amerson
[mailto:kevin.amerson@gmail.com] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 25, 2008 10:36 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> katherine@pingv.com; A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal
service/hosting providers<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [consulting] copyright policies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Then a few things could happen:<br>
<br>
1. The end product would be owned by Ford, and would be patentable<br>
2. Or... the governing open source license and specifics would deem that the
product would have to be open source (currently depending on how its
distributed through a loophole in one of the available open source liecenses) <br>
<br>
Either way, as a contracted developer, you don't own any of it. Unless,
of course, you somehow convinced your client to sign something they shouldn't
have.<br>
<br>
Kevin<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 25, 2008 11:31 AM, Katherine Lawrence < <a
href="mailto:katherine@pingv.com">katherine@pingv.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'>What if you used open source to
build the assembly line so that Henry Ford did not own any patents?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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border-color:-moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color'>
<p><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> <a href="mailto:consulting-bounces@drupal.org" target="_blank">consulting-bounces@drupal.org</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:consulting-bounces@drupal.org" target="_blank">consulting-bounces@drupal.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Kevin Amerson<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 25, 2008 10:19 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting providers<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [consulting] copyright policies</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;
margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
border-color:-moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(204, 204, 204)'>
<p>Ex. If Henry Ford came to me asked me to build a factory to build his <br>
cars quickly. Then I used my skill to build an assembly line. Then the<br>
Wright Brothers came to be and asked for me to build a factory for<br>
their planes. I would build an assembly line.<br>
<br>
I don't see any issue here because the tool was created by me and the <br>
overall product is different. If someone hires me to build a new kind<br>
of social networking site that has never been done before and I create<br>
a super fast data access library while building that site, that tool<br>
is mine and is my creative work. I would not re-create the social<br>
networking idea that was the final product but I would re-use my code<br>
on the next pizza site I built.<o:p></o:p></p>
</blockquote>
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<p><br>
If you did this Henry Ford would sue you. The reason being he owns the
patent on the assembly line, he owns all the machines and patents on all those
machines. In fact this is exactly what gave Ford an advantage
for so many years. When you were working for Ford in this scenario,
everything you did, every idea you came up with belonged to him. <br>
<br>
This thread is amazing to me. I've been on both sides of the
fence, and you have to come to the realization that if you're hired as a
contractor to build something for someone else, then they own it, if you're a
full time employee and you invent something cool while on the job for them,
they own it!!! they own all of it. If they agree to license it under the
GPL then it should be made publicly available, but any client willing license
part of that back to the developer or the developer using any part of it for
their own personal gain through reselling it and charging more money for more
custom development of it is just crazy, and quite possibly illegal. <br>
<br>
I understand that many of you are competing with offshore companies, you will
do yourselves a favor to keep this in mind, that for a US based company to drag
an offshore company through litigation is quite expensive (so they just won't
do it), its much less expensive for a US based company to drag a US based
company through litigation. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
consulting mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:consulting@drupal.org">consulting@drupal.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting" target="_blank">http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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