Slashdot Mirror
Software Patent Sanity on the Way?
Ars Technica is reporting that the traditionally silent US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may be starting to turn things around. It seems that in recent action the USPTO has started to make it much easier to invalidate software patents with some saying that the abolition of such patents may be in the distant future. "Duffy cites four recent cases that illustrate the Patent Office's growing hostility to the patenting of software and other abstract concepts. While the USPTO hasn't formally called for the abolition of software patents, the positions it took in these cases do suggest a growing skepticism. In the first two cases, decided last fall, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which has jurisdiction over patent appeals) upheld patent rejections by the USPTO. They were not software patent cases, as such. In In Re Nuijten, the court considered a patent related to an algorithm for adding a watermark to a digital media file. The Federal Circuit did not invalidate the claims relating to the watermarking algorithm itself; everyone seemed to agree that the algorithm was patentable. Rather, the decision focused on whether a digital signal could be the subject of a patent claim. The court concluded that it could not. A victory for common sense, perhaps, but hardly a rejection of software patents."
A lot of the article is talking about another article that was on slashdot recently.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/24/1458215
I can hardly believe that the US government would make a sensible decision that also happens to be in the interest of its citizens.
The thing that arstechnica is missing is that Duffy is a troll. He is representing amicus in the Bilski case, and is raising the possibility that the USPTO is adopting a position that will invalidate most business process / computer based patents as a FUD attack against any attempt to limit the scope of patentability in this field.
I've always believed that patents should include not just the idea being patented, but also details on how to recreate such an idea (ie. the prototype).
For physical objects, this means schematics. For drugs and such this means formulas. For software it means source code.
See how many companies will be willing (or in the case of patent trolls, ABLE) to patent software when they have to pony up a working implementation as part of the patent application (and thus public record).
I am also against 'secret' or 'partially secret' patents, how is someone supposed to know they are infringing on a patent if they can't get all the details on a patent?
I've asked before and I've never gotten a good answer. How can you patent the act of using something in exactly the manner in which it was designed to be used? A computer is designed to execute an arbitrary series of pre-defined instructions. That's it's only function. Software is just a list of such instructions. How is that patentable? It's not a new invention. It's not an extension of the original device. It's like patenting the act of driving a nail with a hammer, or letting fresh air into a room by opening a window.
Say a particular calculator is patented, and I patent the act of entering 2+2 on it. Then someone else comes by and patents the act of entering (3+7)/2. Hey, it's an innovative new application of an existing device!
I have found there are just two ways to go.
It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow. -REK, Jr.
More than embarrasing. Costly.
Like the saying, "Make hay while the sun shines" the fallacy that equates license to property will burn many more fools before we are done. Money in the bank is always decreasing in value. Using that money keeps it alive. Many profited in the domain name business, if they were wise enough to buy and sell them in a short lived market. The coming ICANN changes will soon massively devalue once treasured domains and those foolish enough to be left holding them, but not using them, will lose out.
The same is true of bogus patents. Fine if you were able to catch the wave of USPOs mistake that sparked the software patent war in the first place, and leverage ivalid patents, but disaster for those caught holding them in the belief that they are tangible property.
When the correction finally comes (and it will) it will wipe billions off the value of some companies. It couldn't happen to more deserving people of course. And perhaps that's the main reason it hasn't happened already. Software patents always have been, by widely recognised standards including those of UPSO itself, invalid. It's only the propagation of an error that has allowed some to profit meanwhile. The value of a market resulting from an error should not be justification to allow that error to persist.
Let's say someone finds a new way to cut logs that let you build log cabins almost as easily but many times more sturdily and with better isolation. This would surely be patentable.
Let's say someone invents a new file system, that lets you access files almost as quickly but with many times the protection against data corruption. Why would this not be patentable?
My impression is that the case against software patents is really a fight by proxy against patents in general, recognising the growing role that software plays to make anything happen.
That's an odd thing to agree upon, because algorithms are not patentable (search for `algorithm')
But methods are. I forget where I read this, but the difference was explained something like this --
Bob: So, algorithms are not patentable and methods are. ... algorithms are not patentable, but methods are ...
Lawyer: Right.
Bob: But what's the difference between an algorithm and a method? Aren't they pretty much the same thing?
Lawyer: Listen carefully
Bob: ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent.
Submarine patent is an informal term for a patent first published and granted long after the initial application was filed. In analogy to a submarine, its presence is unknown to the public; it stays under water, i.e., unpublished, for long periods, then emerges, i.e., granted and published, and surprises the relevant market. This practice was possible previously under the United States patent law, and is now not practical with present patent filings since the U.S. signed the TRIPS agreement of the WTO: since 1995, patent terms (20 years in the U.S.) are measured from the original filing or priority date, and not the date of issuance. A few potential submarine patents may result from pre-1995 filings that have yet to be granted and may remain unpublished until issuance. Submarine patents are considered by many as a procedural lache (a delay in enforcing one's rights, which may cause the rights to be lost).
Indeed, I will probably try this soon. But I'd rather plan this strategy first.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
The problem I see with software patents is that people are patenting the wrong ends of their ideas (they're putting their makeup on their asses in other words).
Take for example Amazon's one-click checkout. The idea of a one-click checkout should not be patentable. Anyone number of people should be able to accept a single click to check-out, what should be patented is the system behind the checkout. The mechanism for tying in the user's login, prioritizing recently used shipping addresses and payment methods, etc... You need to patent the process or the invention, not an ethereal idea.
If I invent Widget A that performs task A, and am awarded patent "Widget A for performing Task A", and someone realized widget A will also perform task B without any modifications, they can't patent "Widget A for peforming task B", because I still own the patent for Widget A, which is all that really matters. I own the exclusive rights for Widget A, no one else can reproduce Widget A regardless of what they want use it for. Amazon didn't invent one-clicking (didn't Microsoft patent that recently?), so they can't say no one else can use one-clicking for checking-out.
It's similar to the patent that the adult-entertainment (read: porno) industry has been fighting for years. Some company patented the idea that videos could be downloaded from the internet. Problem is, since that company did not create the internet nor the http protocol nor the first web-browser, they didn't actually create anything that had to do with the content their patent covered. Improving upon an invention means changing the invention, not mentioning something else the invention could be used for. That's the problem with software patents. People are patenting what existing technology can do, but if they don't own the existing technology, they can't tell other people they can't use it for other things.
Eggs
Milk
Bread
Cat Litter
Soda
Yeah, it's definitely werth trying oot.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
unfortunately, funny posts don't get yo karma. You need one that is informative, like this post.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Comment removed based on user account deletion