Software Tech
I guess its like building a monitor using some method that was invented by someone else. You may not use exactly the same materials, and your process may have slight differences, but if the end product operates in exactly the same way as, say, Sony's Trinitron, you would be breaching the patent. In software its the same concept. I'm not really an expert, and I'm not sure at what level software tech is assessed but I will attempt explain what I understand by it.
Take something like microsofts Active Server Pages for dynamic web application authoring. This consists of various methods, objects and collections, such as Request/Response, file collections, file objects, sessions, applications etc. Microsoft has patented ASP as a technology that it invented and owns. If someone were to now design a system that operated like ASP and used the same objects as ASP then it would be breaching Microsofts patent even if it was written using LISP rather than C#. However, alternative technologies, such as JSP, that ultimately carry out the same functions as ASP, use entirely different methods to achieve dynamic web pages.
This is where open source and the Gnu Public Licence come in. There was widespread objection to the patenting of (even fundamental) technologies and whatsis face (can't remember his name) came up with the GPL. Now, if you use a technology that is licenced in this way, your invention must also operate under GPL and it is free for everyone to use and include in their own work.
Thats the gist of it as I understand it anyway. Hope that clears things up,
Linden
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