Patented?

[Sintrastes]

Hello, I just wanted to ask a quick question about this repo. The license / readme says we are free to fork / build upon this project, but I noticed that the original patent for whyline is still active, and doesn't expire until 2028.

Is there some kind of official patent waiver for this, so we can be relatively confident that forks of this (or re-implementations for different languages / VMs) will not infringe on any patents?

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7735066B1/en

@amyjko

[amyjko]

Good question. I think from a copyright perspective, you're welcome to fork and reuse this code, as when it was written, that particularly licensing arrangement was approved by Carnegie Mellon University, where I was a Ph.D. student. But the patent itself, as a separate form of IP, poses a separate risk, with Brad as one of the co-inventors. He could ask Carnegie Mellon to enforce the patent if someone infringed, or CMU could act on his behalf, without his consent, based on my understanding of his employment contract and the non-exclusive license CMU holds on the IP. I have no intention to enforce, and my institution (the University of Washington) would not enforce on my behalf, as it has no claim to the IP. So the patent waiver would have to come from Brad and CMU. If you're interested in seeking a waiver, I would recommend reaching out to him at bam@cs.cmu.edu and seeing what he thinks.

[Sintrastes]

Thanks! I'll try reaching out.