The end of software patents?
Most software patents suck. They are simply a high level description of something you could create “transfer information from one system to the other by electronic means”. Yeah right! The Patent and Trademark Office has argued in favor of imposing new restrictions on the scope of patentable subject matter set forth by Congress in §101 of the Patent Act. Process inventions generally are unpatentable unless they “result in a physical transformation of an article” or are “tied to a particular machine.”
This might have a huge impact on all current software patents as well. Even Google’s pagerank patent is at stake. Read the full article at the Patently-O Patent Law Blog.
July 27th, 2008 at 18:38
it is time… to get rid of it
July 28th, 2008 at 10:02
Yes, I think you’re right. Programmable computers are general purpose machines. So software is essentially a component to make a general purpose machine a specific purpose machine. A specific purpose machine is (or is a component of) the product the manufacturer delivers.
We don’t have patents on bolts and nails so why have it on software?
A patent that reads “a means of exchanging information through electronic means” it basically the same as “a means to mount two pieces of wood together”. Now anyone who wants to use nails, wood glue or even traditional wood techniques to mount two pieces of wood together has to pay up.
The problem is that anyone can see that the wood example is ridiculous but in the case of software patents not many people grasp the stupidity of it all.