Re: Tux2 - evil patents sighted

[Matti Aarnio]

On Tue, Oct 03, 2000 at 09:42:04AM -0700, Thomas Davis wrote:
> Ion Badulescu wrote:
...
> > For another fine example of GPL technology covered by a parent, check out:
> > 
> > http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US06049528__
> > 
> > This a patent filed by Sun in June 1997 and awarded in April 2000 which
> > covers very well the ethernet bonding device in Linux 2.2.x.
> > 
> > I wonder if the equalizer device present in Linux kernels since before
> > 1996 could count as prior art. IANAL, of course.
> 
> Or, even better, the fact that Ethernet bonding has been available as a
> Linux patch since about 1995..

	I am fairly sure that that is in series of "will patent
	that so that nobody can ransom us"...  (Like IBM did
	with HTML.)

	Surprisingly I don't see any patent at Cisco Systems which
	relates to that ?   They have been doing ether-channel for
	ages, but perhaps their solution is just an implementation
	of Sun's idea ?

> I'm sure Donald Becker could produce prior art on that one!
> -- 
> ------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
> Thomas Davis		| PDSF Project Leader
> [e-mail]		| 

/Matti Aarnio