hollaar@utah-cs.UUCP (02/28/87)
In article <52@esquire.UUCP> patwood@esquire.UUCP (Patrick H. Wood) writes: >In article <5632@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes: >> In article <242@mcdsun.UUCP> fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: >> >On a related note, it is my understanding that Dennis Ritchie holds a >> >patent on the suid bit implementation ... >> >> It's my understanding that this patent was "dedicated" >> (hope I got that right) some time ago, meaning that anyone >> is allowed to use the patented process without royalty. > >All patents are "dedicated to the public" in that the information in them >is published and available from the US Patent & Copyright Office. The >*information* is public; however, the right to use it is still owned by >the inventor and must be licensed. I'm not saying that AT&T does or doesn't >require someone to license the SUID patent to use it; that's up to them to >decide. "Dedicated to the public" has a very specific meaning in patent law (as do many words or phrases). It means that the person or organization having the rights under the patent has decided to make all those rights available to everyone, without any need to license them. It has nothing to do with the ability to get a copy of the patent, nor does it affect the public's right to freely use the invention after the patent expires in 17 years after its issue. It takes a special filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (copyrights are handled by a section of the Library of Congress, while PTO is part of the Department of Commerce). These dedications, as well as a brief summary of patents issued in a given week and other Patent Office notices, are published in the Official Gazette. For the SUID patent, see Official Gazette volume 991, page 11.