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Re: source code and patent violation or copyright infringement
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Posted by Dave on December 12, 2001 at 10:45:18:
In Reply to: source code and patent violation or copyright infringement posted by Bruce on December 12, 2001 at 03:20:14:
Bruce:
In general, the amount copied is not a threshold test. The “quantity test” is a incorrect belief that many programmers have. In an example of how little an amount copied can cause problems, a federal court stated that the use of someone else’s table of values in a patent application was copyright infringement.
Some issues worth considering are whether the amount copied violates rights held by others (copyright, patent, trade secret) or is controlled by something else, like a contract. Briefly, the use of the source code copied may violate a copyright even though the entire source code was not copied. The source code may perform a function by itself, or when used in conjunction with other software, that is covered by a patent. The copied source code may also contain trade secrets whose use or disclosure has not been authorized. In addition, the use of the source code may violate an employment or other type of contract. You should also consider that even if the source code is not copied, the former employees may still create code that violates a copyright, trade secret and/or contract. That would be due to their exposure to the code they desire to copy.
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