Would programming an "XOR Cursor" make me a criminal?

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+2 Q:

Would programming an "XOR Cursor" make me a criminal?

I heard of a software patent for a "cursor" that is visible on black and white surface, and you can see the letters under a cursor.

Is this story real? I couldn't find any sources.

Does it make me a criminal if I program this (trivial) piece of code?

Could I be put in jail?

+2 A:

There are a lot of software patents that are overly broad owned by large companies (for example, here's an IBM patent application for separating UI from business logic http://tinyurl.com/38c9o). They would likely be invalidated if anyone ever challenged them, but nobody has the money to challenge all the ridiculous patents. You can't go to jail for violating a patent, but you could be sued. It is unlikely you'd be successfully sued for this patent, though.

Edit: I am talking about the US of course.

psanf 2009-06-25 13:48:15

+12 A:

Yes, it's true. It is patent number 4197590.

It was filed in 1978, so fortunately it has expired.

Before it had expired, yes technically you would be breaking the law by implementing the system - however, if you can show "prior art" (Which is when you can demonstrate that the idea was general public knowledge before the patent was logged) you could potentially get the patent overruled.

(As others have also pointed out, you can't go to jail for patent infringement, but you can be sued and required to pay a portion of your profits that resulted from the infringement to the company that owns the patent in compensation for their loss from your infringement)

Simon P Stevens 2009-06-25 13:48:26

and if it is a open source program ? => no profit => no payment?

darkrain 2009-06-25 14:04:13

@darkrain:Honestly, I don't think that is something that has ever been tested in court.It would be a difficult one to call, you can't sue someone for money they don't have, but that said, a lot of open source/free software does make money these days through other routes.There are occasional scares that big companies like IBM/MS own patents that Linux violates, but none of the companies have ever pushed it enough to get a real answer.One current area of uncertainty is weather Mono breaks any of Microsoft's patents on the CLR.We won't really know for certain until it's taken to court and tested.

Simon P Stevens 2009-06-25 14:28:26

The answer isn't quite correct. The company that sues you can be awarded damages, not neccessarily based on your profits. Check out the SCO-Linux cases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO-Linux_controversies

psanf 2009-06-25 18:00:07

+1 A:

Yes, the patent exists and by implementing the code you would have violated it. However, as far as I know (and IANAL) such a violation doesn't make you a criminal and furthermore it's doubtful whether a court would actually have upheld the patent text.

Additionally, this strongly depends on the legislative you live in.

Konrad Rudolph 2009-06-25 13:48:46

If you did it accidentally, you wouldn't be a criminal. Unfortunately, your post proves that you know about the patent, so your violation of the patent is provably intentional. Bad luck, you shouldn't have asked.

ammoQ 2009-06-25 13:50:29

in general ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

Scott Weinstein 2009-06-25 15:30:02

Scott: You confuse "ignorance of the law" with "ignorance of the patent". Everybody knows (should know) that patents must be obeyed, but nobody is required to do an exhaustive research through all the millions of patents before he starts to program, engineer, whatever.

ammoQ 2009-06-25 16:43:50

A "black and white surface" is probably not something most people would use to describe their computer display.

Bing 2009-06-25 13:51:54

ansaurus

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Would programming an "XOR Cursor" make me a criminal?

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