Re: The new apache license [OT]?

[Darren Reed <avalon@caligula.anu.edu.au>]

If any of the open source window managers that do virtual desktops
had two peripheries and could pop up the virtual desktop window (like
you get with tvtwm where you can move windows around) when you pushed
a button and it did so before 2002, it could invalidate claim 1.
Knock that one of and 1-6 are gone.

Maybe.

The problem with the uspto.gov web site is you don't get the drawings
and they add considerable meaning to context of the patent and provide
a better understanding when you read the descrition.  Reading them does
not suggest anything novel is presented in this patent (the primary
grounds for them being granted) and if I was Microsoft, I'd want my
money back from the attorneys who handled it because it lacks a lot
of what should be very pertinent citations to existing works.

The main thing to understand is that just because a patent has been
granted does not mean it will stand up in court when the owners attempts
to enforce it.  Up to 40% (or more) of the patents granted in the USA
are said to be of questionable quality and speak to the process being
too rubber stamp orientated to do the community of innovation any real
benefit.

Patents are often used "defensively" by companies in recent times,
where if X sues Y for infringing P, Y then sues X for infringing Q
and then it is up to the court to decide who wins (apart from the
lawyers) if they don't settle out of court (common.)

Darren