> Is it incumbent on me to read every single patent granted and make sure I'm not doing anything that might use any of them?
Basically, yes.
> Over 40k software patents are granted each year. If I spend 20 minutes on each (which is optimistic), it will take me a year and a half to read a year's worth if I do nothing but read 24x7. Obviously, expecting me to keep up on that and still do any development is absurdly unrealistic, and so it is not appropriate to call my failure to do so "negligent".
Do you think that "ignorance of the law" is a reasonable excuse? I ask because there are far more laws and regulations than there are current patents....
Alone, ignorance of the law is not a good excuse. However, when ignorance of the law is provably impractical (impossible, in this case, for a single individual) and acting reasonably causes you to violate it, it is absurd for our society to punish you.
> However, when ignorance of the law is provably impractical (impossible, in this case, for a single individual) and acting reasonably causes you to violate it, it is absurd for our society to punish you.
While it may be absurd for our society to punish you in that circumstance, our society will punish you in that circumstance. In other words, "it's absurd" isn't a legal defense.
Ignorance of patents, like ignorance of law, is no defense, no matter how impractical knowledge is.
Basically, yes.
> Over 40k software patents are granted each year. If I spend 20 minutes on each (which is optimistic), it will take me a year and a half to read a year's worth if I do nothing but read 24x7. Obviously, expecting me to keep up on that and still do any development is absurdly unrealistic, and so it is not appropriate to call my failure to do so "negligent".
Do you think that "ignorance of the law" is a reasonable excuse? I ask because there are far more laws and regulations than there are current patents....