strokes-mode and touchscreen patents? was Re: emacs and touchscreen

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>]

David O'Toole writes:
 > Something occurred to me today after watching my touchscreen
 > strokes-mode video. Could the gesture recognition in strokes.el either
 > 1. be threatened by patents that existed prior to 1997 (the first year
 > of copyright listed in strokes.el) or 2. qualify as prior art for
 > techniques patented later?

1.  Yes.  But why limit to earlier patents?  It infringes patents
    granted afterward, as well.  Once a patent is granted, it is the
    defendent's problem to break the patent, not the patentholder's
    problem to justify the patent.  This is very costly even if you
    have rock-solid prior art.

2.  Yes.  But see point 1 for why this doesn't really matter to you
    unless you're really rich.