Re: [oc] Legal projects that can be worked on.

["Marko Mlinar" <markom@opencores.org>]

> What I want know is what is Copyrightable in the design world? Instruction
> sets?
> Signal names? Specs? Not sure how much protection a company can exert on
> their
> product or spec.
I am surely not an expert in this, but AFAIK methods cannot be patented...
which is unfortunately not the case for US, since their patent office is not
very
precise and you can patent practicaly everything :( Thus also not all patent
are valid at all (e.g. those that cover something, that was patented or
discovered
before).
In any case I don't think there is anything to be afraid of - research
groups
research areas, already covered by patents. Company that has a patent
filed in this area could not be more lucky if breakthrough is made.
Everybody
will have to patent their idea first... The same is true also for
distributing.
Look at gif files for example. LZW would not be spread as it is without it,
and Unisys can charge high fees for licenses... If we for example develope
good RSA core (AFAIK RSA is patented), RSA could be used more often
and RSA patent owners will earn more...

Apart from this discussion, I think it is also important for OC to develop
as much cores as possible, that can be used for personal or commercial
usage without breaking any patent.

best regards,
Marko


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