[tlug] Re: LETTER FROM LINSPIRE FOUNDER (Godwin Stewart)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

burlingk@example.com writes:

 > Remember, we are dealing with the US Courts.  :(  They have been 
 > addle minded and confused of late when it comes to patent issues.

Not at all.  I'm not an expert on the practice of patent law, but I
know several (and employ one), and none of them seem uncomfortable
with what the courts are doing from the legal standpoint, though all
are uncomfortable to some degree with the consequences of existing
law, and those who support open source definitely fear the
consequences for open source software.

The problem is the basic law (which is extremely broad and is strongly
biased toward granting patents), compounded by the lack of improved
laws from the Congress, a major mistake in judgment by the regulatory
agency (the USPTO), and a lack of resources that leads to another
systematic bias, not the courts.

Hoping that the courts are going to somehow "wake up" and turn things
around shows a grave misunderstanding of how the law does (and should)
work.  Prohibition was (and in the modern form IMHO is) a mistake,
too, but not one the courts could do anything about.

Ain't no such thing as a silver bullet in law, either.