On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 02:20:32AM -0700, Julian Fitzell wrote:
> Are there provisions for this sort of thing in any of the treaties or do 
> we just have to start threatening to ignore US software patents until 
> they regain control of their patent system?

    If this patent has been applied for through the US patent office, then
only as US patent will be issued, which will only be valid in the US. I am
not aware of any treaties between EU countries and the US that they 
recognise each other's patents. 

    If this has been applied for through WIPO, then the application will
be routed to national and regional offices (that have been requested by
the applicant), including the European Patent Office, which has a habit of
allowing crazy software patents, in a similar style to the USPTO.
 
> Of course, for all I know, all the other countries are just as bad but 
> we only hear about the US cases... <shrug>

> Pretty sure I'm gonna keep on sorting my photos by date though and they 
> can go ahead and sue me for it if they really want.

    Of course, in the UK private non-commercial use of patented
inventions and "inventions" is permitted