Re: [oc] i386 legally

[Niclas Hedhman <niclas@hedhman.org>]

On Thursday 22 May 2003 06:51 pm, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Niclas Hedhman wrote:
> > 80386 was released ~1987, so patents would be covered for another 8-10
> > years. Exactly what patents there are on the 80386 is hard to know
> > without a search.
>
> Again, IANAL, but this is my understanding of things:
>
> a) A patent cannot be filed more than 1 year after the invention was
> offered for sale;

I think this may be country dependent. Sweden for sure is that the patent must 
be filed before it has been otherwise published, in print or in product.

> b) Patents are valid until 20 years after date of file, *or* 17 years
> after date of issue (in the U.S. only and only for patents filed before
> some time in the late '90s.)

Ohh. I thought it was 25 years. Nevertheless, 17years after issue, is another 
interesting part, since many patents take years from filing to issuance, the 
IC for instance was ~2 decades.

> It's thus unlikely that if a processor was released in 1987 that there
> would be any valid patents after 2008.

OTOH, what on 80386 was NEW? ;o) v86 mode perhaps? Who needs that nowadays?

Niclas
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