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From: Norbert van Nobelen <norbert-kernel@edusupport.nl>
Organization: EduSupport BV
To: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Subject: Re: Open hardware wireless cards
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 10:59:04 +0100
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On Saturday 08 January 2005 21:47, you wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 10:09:29PM +0100, Tomasz Torcz wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 03:14:34PM -0500, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> > > > If we can't come up with our own project to work on open hardware we
> > > > can also just see if its feasible to purchase hardware companies on
> > > > the verge of going backrupt and buy them out and release the
> > > > specs/etc (a la blender). Can someone do the math here? I'm lazy.
> > >
> > > Being open doesn't mean you aren't violating some stupid patent.
> >
> >  Only in some countries. We can ignore those countries.
>
> Patents on hardware are legal and common in _many_ countries including
> all countries in the EU.
>
> cu
> Adrian

There are several independent designs in the market for these chipsets, but as 
far as I know the patents only govern the complete chipset, thus the contents 
of the chipset is not to be worried about.
The other patent issue is the 802.11 standard itself. Is that patent free? 
(IE: That would be a stupid patent)

-- 
<a href="http://www.edusupport.nl">EduSupport: Linux Desktop for schools and 
small to medium business in The Netherlands and Belgium</a>
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