Wouter van Ooijen wrote:

>> And the law suit of the patent holder doesn't necessarily help you in
>> that (it of course would if they claimed that your work of 2000
>> violated their patent of 2003, but it doesn't as they are only claiming
>> that your work of 2005 violates their patent). 
> 
> Which you counter by showing your publication. If it is indeed about the
> same thing as the patent it is very clearly prior art. 

I'm not sure it is always so easy. You can show your code to a judge, but
he won't look at it, as he can't read it. You have to bring in an expert
witness. Which you have to pay (after you have already paid the lawyer).
And so on.

> I certainly won't deny that there are too many occasions where patent
> lawsuits are in effect a battle of attrition (is that the right word?).

Battle of legal budgets, you could also say :)

Exactly my point. And this definitely won't be getting easier with software
patents. 

Gerhard

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