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MiloRambaldi
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Joined: July 26th, 2010, 12:27 am

Patent on an Algorithm

February 2nd, 2015, 3:41 pm

A US company wants to incorporate a published algorithm in their commercial product, but I heard that they need to get permission from the paper's authors first. Does that make sense? Could the authors have filed some patent on their algorithm?
 
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katastrofa
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Joined: August 16th, 2007, 5:36 am
Location: Alpha Centauri

Patent on an Algorithm

February 3rd, 2015, 12:02 am

According to this article, yes: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2011/dec/patent-law.asp (and, of course, algorithms can be patented in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_patents)Copyrights may be also an issue here.
Last edited by katastrofa on February 2nd, 2015, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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DominicConnor
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Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Patent on an Algorithm

March 16th, 2015, 3:43 pm

Yes, an academic paper is not a licence to us the IP in it, though they are often used in patent disputes to demonstrate prior art.
 
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MiloRambaldi
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Joined: July 26th, 2010, 12:27 am

Patent on an Algorithm

April 1st, 2015, 3:38 am

The company was a non-profit, and they said they canned the project because they are afraid any possible legal action.
 
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katastrofa
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Joined: August 16th, 2007, 5:36 am
Location: Alpha Centauri

Patent on an Algorithm

April 4th, 2015, 1:34 am

Good. NPOs are useless leeches latched to taxpayer money.
 
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Polter
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Joined: April 29th, 2008, 4:55 pm

Patent on an Algorithm

July 24th, 2015, 5:06 am