Re: [boost] Boost and patents

From: me22 (me22.ca_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-09-21 13:38:27

On 9/21/06, Mateusz Loskot <mateusz_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 1. Does Boost use any patented technologies?
>
Honestly I have no idea.

That being said, Boost generally covers two categories of library:
- Good implementations of common classes and idioms
- New interfaces, ideas, and idioms

For the former, it might be challengeable with prior art, as it's
common.  For the later, in many cases the boost version is the
originator of the technique, so the danger would be if someone
patented an idea and never made that known, but at worst for that
there's no way that the infringement could be considered malicious.

And of course, in most cases a non-boost implementation of the same
functionality would likely also infringe on a patent, if one existed.

> 2. If it does, and for example it uses some in library X,
> does it mean I can not use library Y (without copying X) in my program
> because of patents-derived restrictions?
> In other words, if Boost uses any patented technologies in library X,
> does it influence other libraries?
> What are implications regarding it?
>
In seems to me like the most common Boost dependencies for the other
Boost libraries are the ones that are better implementations of or
interfaces for ideas already found in the standard or other common
libraries.  For example, Smart Pointer and Bind are improvements on
the related facilities already found in the standard library and
thread is a fairly thin wrapper on top of the operating system's
threading system.

Of course, IANAL as well,
~ Scott