Open Source Stack Exchange
Open Source Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [patents]

For questions about the usages and roles of patents within open projects. This can concern protection of projects/patents, and their implications in licensing, projects, and usages.

75 questions
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Is technology in expired patents open source?

After a patent expires people are free to use it. Does this means, that the technology described in the claims are then Open Source?
ratchet freak
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Do software patents for common formats (gif, mp3, h264) apply globally?

I've been told that I should not use some format because it's patented (gif, mp3, h264). I'm not a U.S. citizen but from E.U. Do these patents apply to me? Are they global? U.S. specific? Or is it more complicated?
user38
12
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1 answer

Is an official standard necessarily an open standard?

One of the hallmarks of the FLOSS philosophy is its reliance upon open standards. The OSI has the one definition of an open standard. The FSF has its own There are many bodies which produce official standards: OSI, ITU, ETSI, IEEE, and so on. The…
kdopen
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Have open-source contributors ever been sued or threatened with a lawsuit for patent infringement?

Have open-source contributors ever been sued or threatened with a lawsuit for patent infringement in their contributions? What was the outcome? The way I see it, there is the "experimental use" defense against infringement, but frequently,…
MWB
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Is there a website where one can register an idea, as an open source one?

Problem statement: I see innumerous patents being filled with vague and generalized descriptions, with most of them never coming to fruition. Humanity as a community suffers because of these patent lockers, who hold onto human advancement for years…
Anurag Vohra
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6
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Am I doing something illegal by installing VLC or MPV?

These packages are excluded from Fedora repositories for legal reasons. The only way to install them is to use third-party repositories like RPM Fusion or building from source. Fedora docs states that: Software patents apply to some of the packages…
Ravexina
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Can I patent open source project?

Suppose I download an open source project from GitHub and modify the code further. Can I patent this code and restrict others to reuse my "modified" code?
Mukesh Gupta
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5
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Meaning of patent clause in licenses

What does this mean? "This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient."
Chris Harris
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4
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Can I protect my open source library from USA software patent?

I am writing a library that may violate software patents. I just don't want to lose my time trying to see if I violate any software patents: I suppose that any skilled mathematician could be able to prove that there exists a morphism from the…
Oliv
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Non commercial project which might be using a patent

If a non commercial or open source project uses a technique which some can argue is covered by a particular patent, what would be implications be. Do you have to pay royalties. If project does not generate any money what would be the effect? Also…
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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If the SIFT algorithm for vision is out of patent, can it be included in open source?

In OpenCV, you can use the SIFT algorithm in doing feature detection. According to Wikipedia, however, the SIFT algorithm's patent has recently run out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-invariant_feature_transform Is this true? According to the…
asylumax
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Open source software that limits competition with a patent

I want to release my software under an open-source license. I got a patent on the part of it. Is there an open-source license that will allow people to use my software but will not grant a patent license?
Ilya Gazman
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How to check if an(y) algorithm is patented/copyrighted or not

I want to know if an/any algorithm is patented or not. If it is patented then where can I find its details. Please explain with an example for both cases.
pebble
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