OSDev.org

It could be a case of i do not want to do anythink to upset MR big (eg: M$ ).
But if you take rootkits as a example, the only way to know for sure if you have one is from out side the OS, yes sure you could use linux, but a custom OS would be better for the job.
So coders from site's like this one, will be in more and more demand.

When most people becoming plumber's, thats the time to be a electricians.

As I am extremely new to alot of the business portion of OS development, how does one go about protecting both the idea and the actual code? I know that patenting is used for like prototyped ideas and such, and that copyrights would be more useful when it comes to theorized or even abstractions, so which would be more beneficial?

I have been looking through various local inventors sites and I've been offered a great opportunity to show my prototype off to potential investors, but they only let inventors through that have their inventions protected.

I may end up just going down to the local patent attourny/lawyer and getting them to (after paying them =)) help me out with the details, and probably have them file the protection claim for me, but I was wondering what you all thought on the issue.

As my idea has already been confirmed to be unique (at least to the patent and copyright govt website USPTO), i think it is about time i ensured the idea.

it might be safest to go with the professional lawyer/financial adviser option, at least you know your insured for compensation if they do something wrong

I talked with the director of the IT division of a local university today. He gave me alot of good advice about tech startup and ways to get captial.

Basically he thinks that my concept is great and that he was quite enthusiastic about helping me on my journey. I have dates set to talk with a patent attorney, the university's small business councel (regarding an IT scholarship), the VTSDA (vermont software developers alliance) to become a member, and 2 opportunities to pitch my business plan to a rather large group of potential investors (both VC & not).

It seems that things are starting to get rolling about this. I talked with some more tech-related people at that university and they thought it was a great idea as well. Currently I'm writing a business plan (and reading a book on how to make business plans haha). I also have various meetings with successful entreprenuers from VT to share their experiences and hopefull steer me away from bad decisions.

Just wanted to keep you guys posted on the progress of the project.

[edit]I also need to come up with a business name/logo/slogan lol... havent given that much thought. [/edit]

Wait, what exactly in your OS are you patenting? It doesn't seem to be that unique that it could get a patent.....unless our system is really that screw up....

EDIT: Also, if you're to try to patent some form of filtering algorithm, or bittorent thing, I'd do some research in the FOSS arena, because there's a good chance that what you have already exists. Prior Art anyone?

Cool 01000101, thanks for keeping us informed and good luck.

Alboin wrote:Wait, what exactly in your OS are you patenting? It doesn't seem to be that unique that it could get a patent.....unless our system is really that screw up....

EDIT: Also, if you're to try to patent some form of filtering algorithm, or bittorent thing, I'd do some research in the FOSS arena, because there's a good chance that what you have already exists. Prior Art anyone?

lol, geesh.
I'm protecting the CODE!!!
if there is a way, I will indeed protect the algorithm as well, but for now, the primary goal is protecting the actual source code from being stole or reused.

also, could you post a more direct link to the FOSS related post? and yes... lets talk about prior art. . . how about you google some bittorrent and p2p filtering solutions that are not client + server based? I'd love to konw about the competition as I'm obviously recreating the wheel.

@dex: Thanks. I'll try to keep you guys updated.

I'm not a lawyer but a simple proprietary license should be enough to protect your code. AFAIK you don't have to/cannot patent code. Copying and reusing the code is prevented by your license.

01000101 wrote:

Alboin wrote:Wait, what exactly in your OS are you patenting? It doesn't seem to be that unique that it could get a patent.....unless our system is really that screw up....

EDIT: Also, if you're to try to patent some form of filtering algorithm, or bittorent thing, I'd do some research in the FOSS arena, because there's a good chance that what you have already exists. Prior Art anyone?

lol, geesh.
I'm protecting the CODE!!!
if there is a way, I will indeed protect the algorithm as well, but for now, the primary goal is protecting the actual source code from being stole or reused.

also, could you post a more direct link to the FOSS related post? and yes... lets talk about prior art. . . how about you google some bittorrent and p2p filtering solutions that are not client + server based? I'd love to konw about the competition as I'm obviously recreating the wheel.

@dex: Thanks. I'll try to keep you guys updated.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... nster.html

This is "really" lame btw, filtering... What some people do to make a quick buck..

EDIT: Btw, patents don't protect code.. copyright does, ideas are patented.. but Americans like taking advantage of that.

It's legal to reverse engineer software in many countries, and many more countries consider software patents illegal.

Brynet-Inc wrote:Americans like taking advantage of that.

AFAIK Americans like taking advantage of everything

Brynet-Inc wrote:It's legal to reverse engineer software in many countries

If you mean reverse engineering as disassembling, well... disassembling of commercial software is prohibited here, but it's foolish alright: any program still loads as a bunch of zeros and 1s in the RAM, which all are assembler opcodes or data. Is it illegal to use debuggers, SoftICE e.g.? No...

I'm protecting the CODE!!!

If you don't release your code, it can't be stolen.

At least, not in a legal manner. It can still be reverse engineered, but no copyright will protect you against that.

The US has given out patents far too easily in the past, and I think is now starting to crack down on them; but as mentioned software patents hold no water in most places other than the US.

JamesM wrote:The US has given out patents far too easily in the past, and I think is now starting to crack down on them; but as mentioned software patents hold no water in most places other than the US.

Most of them probably wouldn't even stand in the US due to prior art.

regardless, I no longer wish to discuss the protection scheme at this moment as I will be talking with a patent attorny soon, and there I will learn more about it. I was just throwing an idea out as I am unsure of what will actually take place... I'm sure that there are effective protection methods as there are protected software peices out there and such.

I'm sure that there are effective protection methods

Apart from being closed source and hiring the most expensive lawyer possible, there's no way you can protect yourself.

If you have an actual idea, a marketable idea that is unique, you may get a patent for it. But remember that a US patent is not valid anywhere outside the USA. The chinese are especially good historically at completely ignoring patents and intellectual property rights.