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Patenting In The Burst Test
gerddie writes "Heise has an interview with S. Kiesewetter-Köbinger, a patent examiner of the German PA, about the cultural break, software patents will impose to Europe if they become valid. He points out the danger to open source and science, and that with patents on software even mathematical methods would become patentable because there is no longer any difference. There is also a companion article competition in the court room, that gives some more insight in the history and current state of the patent system. All is in german, but as always the fish is your friend."
As, if Hemos had even bothered to read the translated article, he would have realized that it is long, and that babelfish STOPS TRANSLATING it less than a third of a way through the article.
use freetranslation.com or one of the many other available translators instead.
yeesh.
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the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
"Software patents, they suck real bad, da da de dum"... in all seriousness, (and I don't have to say this part around here), this is a BAD THING COMING.
Here's my question: In light of the somewhat unfortunate fact that world economies are growing increasingly intertwined, especially given the rate of advances in digital communications, how great is the chance of my wonderful country (U.S.) eventually just deciding to "take the ball and go home" when it comes to countries that don't play by our current rules regarding software patents?
This strikes to the core of a problem America has always suffered from, namely a nasty elitist attitude regarding all things involving tech and government. While it's true that the U.S. has enjoyed relatively little fallout for this attitude problem historically speaking, how long can that last?
As an American, I suppose what I'm suggesting here is simply that U.S. citizens should probably start taking a closer look at how our internal government policy decisions (especially regarding technology issues) may eventually leave us out in the cold on the world economic scene. It only makes sense when you think about it; we've got the edge in a few areas for the moment, but tables have a way of turning whenever our good friend Murphy steps into the room...
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That is the most gramatically awkward submission I've read recently. It's almost as if Taco wrote it himself! ;)
There, I've demonstrated my full knowledge of both Spanish and German, and probably my lack of spelling skills in both.
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Check EPC article 52(1)c that says computer software is not patentable, and article 52(3) that has the infamous "as such" clause that EPO uses as a loop hole to grant software patents.
Unfortunately it seems europe has lost this race even before anyone knew it was an issue.
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When I was a kid I remember reading that non-communist Russia was a huge threat to the west because they did not recognize western patents. Of course, I like most people agreed that this was a serious problem.
Now I am an adult and I understand that earlier opinion was guided and shaped by the corporate marketing machine which has a vested interest in keeping ideas tied to their existing bank accounts.
Europeans should fight Software Patents and not be shy about it.
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After giving the headline a cursory glance, I thought it said, "Patenting The Burn-In Test"....although somebody's probably already working on that one.
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Every single software patent I've seen begins with explaining what the patent covers, by describing an apparatus that implements the patent. Most of the time this means a PC running a piece of software.
Since IANAL, I'm interpreting this so that providing only part of the solution (ie, the software component) isn't covered by the patent since no hardware is provided. If providing part of the solution is a breach, wouldn't it imply that providing the hardware part only (a pc) is infringing? If providing some part of the solution is infringing the patent and some other part is not, where does the line go?
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
Check out Bounty Quest, they reward people for finding documents that mention the idea before it was registered as a patent. That way the patent does not fulfil the new criteria and becomes invalid.
You get paid too...
Idempotent operation: Like MS software, wether you run it once or often, that doesn't make it any better.