Re: [oc] legal advice

["Damjan Lampret" <lampret@opencores.org>]

A couple of comments:

1) Steve and Charlie have modified web pages of both cores more or less
according to MIPS(tm) wishes. MIPS-Lite has been renamed to M-Lite. MIPS(tm)
still has a problem with M-lite name because it implies MIPS(tm) compatible
core.
2) I think our (OpenCores) policy should be to honor intellectual property
rights to its fullest. Intellectual property rights are patent, trade secret
and copyright rights. We should honor trademarks as well.

Again, is there any IP lawyer in the house? ;-)

regards,
Damjan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jecel Assumpcao Jr" <jecel@merlintec.com>
To: <cores@opencores.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: [oc] legal advice


> Since I am not a lawyer, I was going to stay out of this thread. But
> given Jean Masson's reply, I feel compelled to comment.
>
> There are three entirely separate issues, here. Trademarks, Patents and
> Copyrights.
>
> While you might win a legal case against MIPS over their Trademarks, it
> is very unlikely ("Windows" and "Access" are very generic terms too,
> yet Microsoft was able to trademark those) and very expensive. So the
> best thing to do is to rewrite all web pages in such a way that they
> find acceptable. That will probably not involve eliminating all
> references to MIPS as their letter requests, but just adding lots of
> trademark notices and notes explaining that OpenCores is not affiliated
> with MIPS. You will have to negotiate this. And the name of the
> MIPSlite core will certainly have to be changed.
>
> About patents: independent invention does *not* allow you to avoid
> licensing a patent. The only thing that can help is to prove prior
> invention and publication - then the patent is not valid and you can
> use it in your own products, but you have to be prepared for a costly
> legal battle. Unlike what the letter says, the OpenCores publications
> would probably be considered "fair use" since the cores were made for
> educational, not commercial applications. It would be very nice to add
> clear notes to the offending cores saying this and that any other use
> of the core will require licensing of a set of patents. If you
> explicitly list their patents they might accept this, though they will
> pretend not to be happy with it.
>
> Regarding their copyrighted material linked from the OpenCores web
> site, they are on very shaky ground. But I see no reason not to make
> them happy by changing the link to go through the policy page in their
> site or at least adding a link to this page right before the link to
> the PDF file.
>
> As I said before, I am not a lawyer and this should not be taken as
> legal advice except in Antartica and the southern hemisphere of Mars.
> But being friendly as long as that is an option is simply good sense.
>
> -- Jecel
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