On 2018-07-27 13:33:28 -0400, Chapman Flack wrote:
> On 07/27/2018 01:01 PM, Andres Freund wrote:
>
> > the patch and people doing so can reasonably be expected to know about
> > the patents, making further contributions by them worse.
>
> I'm not sure this line of thinking, which seems rooted in notions of
> tainted or cleanroom development from the copyright world, has the
> same force wrt patents.
Yes, violations made with knowledge triples damages in the US.
> Sometimes a good understanding of a patented technique, including
> just what aspects of it are claimed or not in the patent's claims
> section, will be just what you need in order to be confident that
> an alternative approach you've devised really is different in the
> ways that matter. I don't think it automatically casts a cloud on
> the work as it would in the copyright case.
There's no way we can do that without extensive lawyerly input in each
case.
Greetings,
Andres Freund
