[Fsfe-ie] Re: McCreevey and ther next step

Justin Mason jm at jmason.org
Mon Jul 25 23:17:08 CEST 2005


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The term for this is "laches" --

Laches - the legal doctrine that a legal right or claim will not be
enforced or allowed if a long delay in asserting the right or claim has
prejudiced the adverse party (hurt the opponent) as a sort of "legal
ambush." - Law.com dictionary

http://www.bohanlaw.com/patessf.html :

... the patent holder has an obligation to protect and defend the rights
granted under patent law. Just as permitting the public to freely cross
one's property may lead to the permanent establishment of a public right
of way and the diminishment of one's property rights, so the knowing
failure to enforce one's patent rights (one legal term for this is laches)
against infringement by others may result in the forfeiture of some or all
of the rights granted in a particular patent. 

See also:

http://www.depo.com/torpedoing.htm
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=us/264/463.html

for some cases. It seems to be by no means clear-cut, but the doctrine is
there.  I would guess it may be viewed as a shaky thing to base an
infringement case defence on.

- --j.


Fergal Daly writes:
> I've heard of that for trademarks but not for patents. I'm saying it's
> not true but it seems to be contradicted by the Unisys with the GIF
> patent and Rambus with various standards-torpedoing patents like the
> Rambus one,
> 
> On 7/25/05, Justin Mason <jm at jmason.org> wrote:
> > In the US, at least, you have to police patents, too, by prosecuting
> > infringers in the courts -- or risk losing the patents to the public
> > domain.   I don't know if this applies in Ireland too, but it seems
> > logical.
> > 
> > So the ISA really just wants patents. ;)
> > 
> > - --j.
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