[OpenIndiana-discuss] What is OI/illumos stance on recreation of features from Solaris 11 (and other proprietary OSes)?

[James Carlson]

Jim Klimov wrote:
>   So, the main question of this post is: in legislations that
> are relevant and actively applicable to illumos-derived OSes
> such as OpenIndiana, are *ideas* and technical specs (meaning
> public-API/config compatible but code-different implementations)
> patentable and protectable, or are coders allowed to implement
> on their own things that others created somehow else?

Assuming that the US is one of those "legislations," yes, the system
here does allow for at least two types of patents that cover these sorts
of ideas (design and method patents), and the exact implementation
doesn't matter at all.  You can easily infringe without ever having seen
the other's code or even without ever have seen or known about the
existence of the other patented idea.

This is how, for example, an extremely large fruit-related company can
claim ownership of rectangles with sanded-down corners.

If you're trying to solicit legal advice on an open mailing list, I
suspect that's a fruitless search.  In fact, talking at all about it is
probably a Bad Idea -- doing so can change any future case into a
"knowing" infringement.  That can have a significant effect on liability.

Much better to just discuss ideas rather than ownership.

-- 
James Carlson         42.703N 71.076W         <carlsonj at workingcode.com>