While I'm sure many lawyers may act that way, there are also many who will simply review the facts quickly, then give you a quick and dirty explanation of what your liable for, then move on. Don't be too afraid of lawyers.

I believe that only the process can be patented. Not the result. This is true even in the generic drug scene where lots more money is involved (really lots and lots more).

So, if you are sure you never fudged the code or the algorithms or the run sequence, triggers etc, then go ahead.

Above all, at this stage, dont release a newer version of the code.

End

First of all the way patents are granted differ from country to country plus this is a highly complex issue you couldn't possibly clear up with a couple of posts.
here's a link to an outdated paper from Mr. Winischofer - the one with the SIS graphics driver (he seems to be a lawyer,too). Unfortunately it's in german only but the size is telling....

What exactly are they accusing you for? Copy the code or copy the algorithms? That make a huge difference.

AFAIK, certain algorithms can be copyrighted, like MP3 encoding was copyrighted by the German Fraunhofer institute. However since at least some work has been done funded by the EU there migh have been obligations regarding dissimination of results, which makes the algorithms available to everyone. This has not necessarily to be true, but at least rules had to be recorded at the time of the project, and those rules and decisions are publicly available.

If you didn't copy the code, there is no copyright issue. I think there is a huge difference in jurisdiction between the EU and the USA.

jlinkels

is it a necessary description to know that they're germans ?

I would think so. While both Italy and Germany are EU members, there are still a lot of legal matters that are decided on a national level rather than the European one. For example, the whole copyright/drm issue is still very much a national issue. It only makes things more complicated.

That seems to imply that you have in your possession a copy of their source code. If that is correct, you really need to see a solicitor.

I confirm the only reason I place the nationality is because I know that copyright issues may vary agains country.