Fwd: Re: [clug] FOSS patent infringements

[Owen Jones]

On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 11:15:29AM +1000, Jason wrote:
> All these piles of mysterious patents really confuse me, maybe someone who actually understands it properly could do a talk on what a poor open source developer need to know one month.

Perhaps we could approach IP Australia (the body that administers the patent
system in Australia) and ask if they could give us a presentation on how
patents affect open source in Australia.

> For instance the difference between copyright, trademark and patent, a companies logo is automatically copyrighted but they can can apply for it to be trademarked or maybe registered? How do you differentiate between a graphical concept like a logo and an equally graphical concept like a user interface which can be apparently patented?

An overview of the different types of "intellectual property" in Australia can 
be found on IP Australia's website 
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/ip/introduction.shtml

Cheers,
Owen.