31 August 2001

Free software and the law, day one.

Attendees at Bruce’s Free Software and the Law Summit.

Things you might not have known that I did not know that I learned about at this summit:

• The GPL contains an explicit grant of rights to any patents you own that might be covered by the code you’re licensing.
• Copyright, patent, and trademark licenses should all be on separate pieces of paper.
• The total global base of software patents is approaching one million.
• It is illegal not only to make but also to use, sell, offer to sell, or import a product which violates a patent.
• Richard Stallman doesn’t wear “T shirts that say words,” because he feels that it’s “undignified.” (Though I’m sure he’d make an exception for the Jacob Berkman shirt).
• Examiners are only given about 10 hours total to review a patent, including iterations with the filer.
• US patents can now be “reexamined” through a little-used process much less costly than litigation.

At lunch I left to fly back home.

American Airlines flight 194 from SFO to BOS.

Coming out of the tunnel onto Storrow Drive.

Joe Shaw taught me to love.

Jacob walking back from 7-11.