- Refuting Novelty
- Multilateral Company Agreements, Mutual Defense Alliances, Assurances
FFII has already started to document the state of the art of all FFII.ORG projects. This documentation is archived in a public library with a time stamp once a month.
For defense against frivolous patent attacks, the only real help is the proof that "this technology was already documented in 19xx-xx-xx as described in cited document Dx". Refuting novelty is the only way to beat a patent. Other criteria such as "inventivity" / "inventive step" have been softened to near-uselesness by the patent offices.
Software professionals are not forced by fate to submit to bureaucratic idiocy. With a minimum of good will, they can forge alliances, form "fair use agreements" that achieve a (relatively) tolerable harmonisation between the interests of patent owners and those of the freedom of informational infrastructure.
It would also be possible to build, within the framework of such alliances, affordable law protection insurances for programmers of free software. The protection against patent claims would then be professionalised. We could move to counter-attack and become a feared force that could make patent sharks think twice.
These ideas have been proposed before, but they have failed due to a lack of good will and solidarity in the software industry. They are not an alternative to fighting against the abusive extension of the patent system, only a possible remedy that should be pursued simultaneously. |