[school-discuss] Patent Busting

[Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm confident that the majority of the people in this group are
familiar with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but I don't
know how often you check their web site--so here is something
that might be worth a look if you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/wanted-prior-art-bust-seer-patent

At least a few of you should be technically qualified to get
involved. I think the part that might be most relevant to FLOSS
would be this: "Publicly available software that was distributed before the filing date and that demonstrated the functionalities described in the patent may also be used as prior art."

In addition, the whole Seer Systems case (as well as the Patent Busting Project in general) should be good fodder for class
discussions at the appropriate grade levels.

Enjoy.

Joel