Re: [Fwd: United States Patent: 6,862,609]

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 11:31:36AM +0100, Bernd Petrovitsch wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 01:21 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
> [...]
> > It brings up another sore point with me.  I'm of the opinion that both 
> > copyright, and patent, should be granted to the author/inventor on a 
> > non-transferable basis.  He could then sell rights to use it for a 
> 
> ACK. This would kill the abuse and do what lots people are claiming -
> help the actual innovator (and not only help the patent abuse
> machinery).
> BTW in Austria and Germany (and probably the rest of continental Europe)
> the local version of the copyright (in german "Urheberrecht") has this
> feature since ages.
> So just move onto here and voila, you there in at least this point.
>...

At least in Germany, it's not the way you describe it:

With a few minor limitations, you can transfer exclusive rights on the 
thing you have the copyright on to someone else.

The basics of German and US copyright law are different, but the 
practical consequences aren't.

> 	Bernd

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed