Re: [oc] i386 legally

["H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>]

Niclas Hedhman wrote:
> 
> 80386 was released ~1987, so patents would be covered for another 8-10 years. 
> Exactly what patents there are on the 80386 is hard to know without a search.
> 

Again, IANAL, but this is my understanding of things:

a) A patent cannot be filed more than 1 year after the invention was 
offered for sale;
b) Patents are valid until 20 years after date of file, *or* 17 years 
after date of issue (in the U.S. only and only for patents filed before 
some time in the late '90s.)

It's thus unlikely that if a processor was released in 1987 that there 
would be any valid patents after 2008.

	-hpa


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