Re: [ccp4bb]: License required for deposited structures!

[Favre-Nicolin Vincent <vincefn@users.sourceforge.net>]

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> >   It might be April 1st, but patents can potentially constitute real
> > problems even for academics in the future! I really think people should
>
> this is not true either - information in patents may be used for
> non-commercial purposes (such as academic research)

   No. Patents _also_ apply to non-commercial projects. However in _practice_, 
seldom will a company file a lawsuit against a non-commercial project because 
it does not make sense financially speaking. But strictly, if a 
non-commercial project (say, a freely available software) uses a patent and 
reduces the financial earnings of the patent holder, then there can be 
prosecution (and the project can be shut down).
   
> patents have a good side too in that information that would otherwise be
> buried in a company is being published.

   indeed. Nobody would want drug discoveries to remain hidden.

> also keep in mind that many things
> cannot be patented (in sweden: theories, discoveries, computer programs,
> teaching methods, objets d'art, disease treatments, etc. in the us, disease
> treatments and computer programs can be patentable, though). other things
> that are good to know: a patent can only be obtained for a functioning
> technical solution to a problem, which is both novel and non-obvious, and
> only the inventor can apply for a patent.

   Very idealistic ! You _can_ gain a patent very trivial ideas, unfortunately 
(and it'd cost you 10000-100000 €/$ to prove it _is_ trivial). And as for the 
non-patentability of computer programs and algorithms in Europe, its days are 
counted, due to the intense lobbying of microso$t & co.

	Vincent
-- 
Vincent Favre-Nicolin
Université Joseph Fourier
http://v.favrenicolin.free.fr
ObjCryst & Fox : http://objcryst.sourceforge.net