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Bilski Patent Case Appealed To Supreme Court
An anonymous reader writes "The landmark ruling of a few months ago that limited patents to inventions which include a machine or which transform physical matter has been appealed up to the Supreme Court. 'On the one side of this controversy... are those... who argue that patents must be available to encourage innovation in devising new ways to conduct business in the global information-based economy, including encouragement for new ways of digitizing business methods. On the other side are consumer advocacy groups and free-market devotees who worry that patent monopolies could tie up methods of creative thought processes, including teaching, judging, creative writing, making medical judgments, or picking juries (some current, real examples of claims).' The Bilski decision has already had an impact on potential software and biotech patents, in addition to the obvious limitations on business method patents. The petition (PDF) argues that the 'machine-or-transformation' test conflicts with the broad language of the patent statute and with congressional intent. It's entirely within the Supreme Court's discretion to take the case or not, but for now it looks like the issue is far from decided."
If the Supreme Court doesn't accept it, I suppose we have a chance to bring yet another case and try for more limitation of software patenting.
What really bothers me is that our only viable path to do this right now is the courts. We've not been able to establish a legislative campaign.
Bruce Perens.
There are no ways in which software patents can help anyone but patent lawyers. Since American patents are only binding in America, they put domestic companies at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world. Anyone can open an American office and start filing patents to be used against us, but good luck to an American company that wants to file patents in China to protect their claims.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
People seldom consider the implications of abolishing software patents.
Sure, there are a lot of good arguments against granting artificial monopolies on computer software--and many of them ARE good arguments. However, categorically denying patent protection to software creates some logical difficulties.
Most computer aficionados are familiar with the idea that software and hardware are logically equivalent. We CAN build specialized hardware to do what we would have our software do.
It would seem a bit anomalous, therefore, to allow a patent on specialized hardware that embodies precisely the same inventive character as its patent ineligible software counterpart.
So, in my opinion, the real issue we are seeking to resolve here is more subtle and obscure than we are admitting. Certainly, affording computer software a unique status as patent ineligible subject matter is not the most complete solution.
I think that's what the court was getting at in Bilski. They were searching for some kind of logical test rather than an unexplainable, static, and inflexible prohibition on a certain class of invention.
I'm not saying the court was right--I'm trying to shed a little more light on the playing field.
Who said anything about patents being bad? The words "information" and "business process" do not jive with what the patent system was intended to be used for. Nor do they happen to cost millions or billions in R&D.
The messed up part about all of this is that it's all caused by an early misinterpretation of technology by courts. There was a case that came up where a patent was filed for a device (a rubberizer, IIRC?) that used computer control to accomplish its innovative task. The judge correctly assessed that the invention as a whole was innovative and granted patent protection.
Unfortunately, the court cases that followed cited that case as precedent for software patents. The judges didn't understand the difference and started granting exceptions carte blanche. Thus we ended up in the screwed up system we have now with no oversight over what is a valid patent and what is not.
Even more messed up is that patent law is okay. It says that patents should be non-obvious, it says that they should have no prior art, etc., etc., etc. Yet technology patents regularly get shoved through the system without any of these checks or balances applied.
The bozos who are defending this messed up violation of the law as legit are nothing more than charlatans who couldn't make an honest living if they tried. Last I checked, many of them even helped tank the world economy in recent news.
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