Information Patents in the US and Europe

Over_and_Done writes "First Monday has an article up discussing the differences in information process patents between the US and Europe. The author mentions that the United States reform is too focused on process reform, arguing that they should be instead focusing on what is and is not patentable (i.e. Business Method patents). He also states that Europe is choosing to instead follow a different track, and make the process a little more restrictive, resulting in a rift between the US and Europe. The article raises a lot of interesting facts that I was not aware of, including the incident where the US threatened to walk out of the WIPO meeting because the proposed treaty did not 'mandate patents for all fields of activity.' The author, although critical of the policies on both sides of the pond states that the rift is in some ways healthy, as it encourages an open debate and requires people to look at the patent issue from many different angles."

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

I have a patent on writing comments on a news story for the purpose of discussion, and Slashdot doesn't have a license to use my technology.

Sorry lost you

[quantaman]

Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items.

I was with them until this point.

Re:I hate America

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Anonymous Coward,

Thank you for your feedback. While America tries to accomodate most people, we occasionally find a person who is not a right match for America. We regret that things did not work out, and wish you luck in your future endeavors. If you are not satisfied with America, you are encouraged to stop using our products, services, technologies, or visiting our locally hosted websites.

Thanks again,
America

Re:Obligatory Haikus

[Ignorant Aardvark]

Ummm let's try that properly formatted this time.

Info patents in
The U.S. and Europe can
Not patent haikus

Re:Algorithms and Scientific Ideas

[LongJohnStewartMill]

What if Netwon patented gravity and then decided to take a royality from everyone making use of the idea

Newton would be rich, especially if it was a US patent. Since ~30% of Americans are obese, he could just walk around and make money off of fat people. "I believe you're using something that belongs to me. Pay the royalty please. Thank you. Here, have a candy. My treat."

Re:I hate America

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear United States,

Thank you for your memo. While the civilised world tries to accommodate most people, we occasionally find a country that is not up to our high standards. The USA is such a country. We regret that things did not work out, and wish your people luck in finding alternative accommodation. If you, at some point in the future, wish to rejoin the civilised world, you are encouraged to: stop polluting the environment; declaring war on other non civilised world countries for fictional reasons; suppressing the freedom of your people; believing that money is the goal; patenting obvious ideas; shooting yourselves; and generally acting like the French (who we have our eyes on anyway, but they at least make good food).

Please remove your products, services and technologies since we have our own which are actually much better than your attempts and will likely flourish without your questionable practices.

Thanks again,
The Civilised World

PS We were trying to think who of your peoples we might give asylum to; but to be honest, we couldn't think of one living person.