News picks
Articles from other sources; copy title, first paragraph, and put URL in body of post.
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The above excerpt of § 101 is the basis of patent law in the U.S. With the exception of a small modification in 1952, § 101 has remained virtually unchanged since written by Thomas Jefferson. Until recent times, the statute gathered little attention. However, with the addition of software and business method patents in the 1980’s, the statute has been the subject of dispute. Until about 1981, the U.S. Patent Office held that steps performed by a computer were unpatentable under at least § 101. However, in Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981), the Supreme Court overruled the Patent Office and held that, though an algorithm and the like are abstract and unpatentable, the fact that an otherwise patentable process is carried out on a computer does not make it unpatentable.
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by:  zoobab 1222188214|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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In particular, they identify software and business methods as an issue, and state that large companies are using the patent system to build thickets that effectively keep competitors out of markets.
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by: zoobab 1222187336|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Bilski is coming (OCTOBER LIKELY) Chief Judge Michel is quoted: "One of the most important cases pending with the [Federal Circuit] today is In re Bilski…. 'It's a very interesting case and I thought all the judges worked very hard on it,' says [Chief Judge] Michel. He adds: 'I think it will be a very significant decision. It probably will have broader scope than either In re Comiskey or In re Nuijten"
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by: zoobab 1222186991|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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A global petition designed to raise awareness of software patents will launch on 24 September as part of the World Day against Software Patents. Currently in draft format, the petition includes information about how software patents can affect business, research and development.
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by: zoobab 1222186873|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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In order to obtain a patent for software, an invention must be new, inventive, have an industrial application and not fall into excluded subject matter. Excluded subject matter are scientific theories, mathematical methods, rules or scheme of performing a mental act, methods of doing business and the presentation of information and computer program. Difficulties are experienced by applicants for software patents because software needs something extra: a technical effect. It is the technical effect produced by the software that is patentable, and not the software itself.
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by: zoobab 1222186800|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The problem is patents. LLVM’s license allows more room for Apple to use software patents than the GCC’s licenses do. And Apple now has the opportunity to maneuver themselves into a place where through those patents they can dominate the software that can be run on their machines. Those bastards!
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by: zoobab 1222186658|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Activists have declared tomorrow 'Stop Software Patents Day'. The day is being held on the fifth anniversary of a European Parliament decision to limit patent law in a way that campaigners say benefited small software developers.
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by: zoobab 1222186556|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The good folks from India are said to be “conducting a National Public meeting on software Patents on October 4th.” There is already a draft and an announcement might come tomorrow, Boycott Novell was informed. A lot of organisations are likely to be joining with an initial list here.
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by: zoobab 1222186272|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Prabhir Purkayastha, secretary, Delhi Science Forum, said a regime of software patents could pose a grave threat to indigenous software development in a country like India. In essence, patenting software was to own a piece of algorithm, he said, and that amounted to patenting the fundamental math. For the U.S., software patenting had compensated for dwindling revenue from a weakening manufacturing sector, he said. The patenting regime was dominated by a form of lifelong royalty levy in which software was equated with any other artifact—one could patent just about anything: from a single-click buying business method to drop-boxes on a website. “India should avoid the mistakes of the U.S.”
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by: zoobab 1222072791|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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That and his abrasive, bordering on rude, delivery. And it's a shame because he has a good message. He pointed out many of the problems with software patents and the difficulties with being able to develop software independently. If you have any sort of success, you might easily run afoul of someone that claims a patent on your idea. He games examples of the gzip/pkzip fiasco and a few others. He showed how hard it is to find a patent, decipher the filings, and even the problems with patents that are under consideration. All pose problems and Mr. Stallman is right, we need to do something.
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by: zoobab 1222017301|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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I am the Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy at Microsoft, having joined the company about 9 months ago. My role is to work with a variety of constituencies inside the company and outside to help shape the approach we take to intellectual property. I am new to the company and cannot take credit for it, but am very pleased that in recent years, Microsoft has made progress in participating with open source communities. A part of that has been the implementation of the Open Specification Promise (OSP), which was launched in 2006. We think it is a simple and clear way to assure that the broadest audience of developers and customers working with commercial or open source software can implement specifications.
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by: zoobab 1222017159|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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In some ways, innovation is to blame for the current U.S. financial crisis. During the past ten years the major players at the heart of the crisis--big Wall Street investment banks and financial companies--developed increasingly complicated and risky investment strategies based on the bundling and trading of mortgages. This has turned out to be a bust. Bankers have been pursuing other innovative strategies, as can be seen in a number of patents and published patent applications assigned to Wall Street firms.
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by: zoobab 1222016692|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Aruba Networks says that it has filed a patent infringement countersuit against Motorola, Symbol, and Wireless Valley. The countersuit concerns Motorola's (and its subsidiaries') claimed infringement of two Aruba patents related to managing wireless computer networks and network security.
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by: zoobab 1222016588|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Joff Wild over at the IAM Blog recently chatted with Dan McCurdy, chairman of PatentFreedom and CEO of Allied Security Trust, who is issuing a list of the most litigious non-practicing entities (aka "patent trolls") for the next issue of IAM Magazine.
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by: zoobab 1222016492|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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In the software industry, being able to get a patent for an idea you have conceived that hits of really well is bad enough already that you have big companies going out patenting popular concepts in softwares that aren’t theirs to begin with. Besides giving that big company who did not think of a famous idea but now owns it an unfair advantage to play evil, it severely cripples the ability of other companies in general and developers in particular to be able to build upon that idea in order to build and sell better, bigger products, especially when such an idea is as basic and simple in nature as a window layout — most or all products need to need to build upon that.
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by: zoobab 1222013515|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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It matters which sort of legal protection you take. Felix van Kourten argues why patent law suits software so badly and why we are better off with copyright law. Oct 10 he will speak at the Kiel Linux and Open Source Days.
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by: zoobab 1221985713|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Apple appears to be taking ideas from commercial software already being sold and is attempting to patent the concepts as their own. According to Apple Insider, Apple has recently filed a patent application for a notification screen on the iPhone. The only problem with this is that Intellisync has been using this concept in their popular iPhone notification screen software for over a year now, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is a clear rip-off.
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by: zoobab 1221956875|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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They could have taken the approach that every last Ubuntu user is vested in the "free as in speech" aspect of open source and does not own a single piece of media in a proprietary format. That would have been seen through immediately as either a blatant lie or delusional thinking. Or they could have thumbed their noses at the intellectual property laws in several countries, and refused to offer a legal alternative on the grounds that the laws are simply restrictive and misguided.
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The Daily Background has published an article mentioning that McCain wants to hire Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer. McCain is advised by ultra-pro software patents advocates, and he shows now that he is very close to large corporations.
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by: zoobab 1221949298|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Patent examiners and other staff of the European Patent Office (EPO) demonstrated outside the European Commission offices Thursday, demanding a thorough re-examination of the EPO. They claim that the organisation is decentralising and focusing on granting as many patents as possible to gain financially from fees generated.
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