> Patents don't cover ideas. Any IP lawyer will tell you that. Patents
> cover implementations. There has to be an implementation, and *only*
> that particular implemented technique is covered. No fundamental
> algorithms or ideas are covered.
No, actually patents _do_ apply to the ideas as well. Copyrights
don't apply to ideas, just particular expressions of them--but that's
not the case with patents. If you patent a gadget, and someone else
uses your design to build a similar gadget using different materials
and slight modifications, but still clearly based on your ideas, he
is infringing under present law.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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