German High Court Declares All Software Patentable

FlorianMueller writes "Long gone are the times when Europe was that bastion of resistance against software patents and patents on such things as file systems were ruled invalid. In a decision published today, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany upheld a patent on the automatic generation of structured documents (such as XML/HTML) in a client-server setting. The ruling lays out general principles that go beyond the patent at stake: they tear down all barriers to software patentability in the largest EU member state, even though a European patent treaty has been adopted that was intended to exclude software from the scope of patentable subject matter. EU patent examiners recently warned against a drift toward software patents. Software patent critics in Europe fear this will spark more litigation on their continent and increasingly call for defensive measures."

Comments

Noooooooo !

[Yvanhoe]

There goes the possibility for small innovative company to develop in a safe legal framework. Let me phrase my sentiment, on behalf of all my European colleagues, and in the immortal words of Spider Jerusalem : FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

Re:Noooooooo !

[Pinky's Brain]

Small inventors who want to work on stuff they can't bring to market by themselves do benefit, because without patents it's very hard for them to get money together in secrecy to get a lead on the market. That said, the damage it does to small (software) engineering companies by making any little project they do trip over a dozen of patents means it still is not worth it.

As for big companies, they might benefit from being able to throw up barriers to entry ... but slowly but surely it's becoming apparent that "it protects the big guys" was just a way the lawyers used to sell it to the big companies. Being able to throw up patent walls doesn't protect you from being bled dry by patent trolls.

In the end there is only one group who benefits from patents and suffers no negative results ... lawyers.

Re:Is it possible

[jedidiah]

Just you wait...

        A recipe is just another form of algorithm.

Time for another web protest

[denis-The-menace]

Time for a bunch of web sites to close up shop for a day to remind how this will affect things on the web.

Re:Does it make a difference

[cbiltcliffe]

So that means if I sell software, without any hardware with it, then I'm not infringing on _any_ software patents, right?

The users might be, if they run said software on "a hardware appliance, comprising of a CPU, blahblah", but not the developer.

But then, why do pure software developers get sued, huh?

there once was a time

[circletimessquare]

when intellectual property law was meant to protect the solitary inventor from the predatory conglomerate. now the predatory conglomerate just preemptively carpet bombs their intellectual property territory and backs it up with a legion of lawyers. the solitary inventor doesn't stand a chance

intellectual property law is defunct. it is philosophically bankrupt and must be replaced wholesale, ignored, or at least radically revamped. this applies to trademark, copyright, and patents: the whole lot of it is rotten to the core and betrays any noble principles it was ever meant to uphold

Boycott Germany

[H0p313ss]

Start including a disclaimer in all license agreements, something to the effect of "This software may be in violation of German patent law and is therefore not available for use in that country"

Refuse to sell or license any software to anyone in that country who is not willing to sign a disclosure stating that they are fully aware of the implications of German patent law and are responsible for any violations that may occur.

Provide information for how to contact any German political organization that opposes software patents

How to Fight This?

[aaaaaaargh!]

That's pretty shocking news to me as a German, because (naive as I am) I always considered the German High Court is halfway reasonable.

Could we perhaps fight software patents by getting completely ridiculous and untenable patents accepted and afterwards make this public? -- This could have the desired effect but is probably never going to happen, because the whole patenting process is a bit expensive. :(

In my opinion the whole idea that someone could dictate me what computational methods I use and sell is totally ridiculous. A lot of my work involves formal logic and methodology and I can't wait for the day when I'll publish a scientific paper that unbeknown to me infringes on some patent and then get sued for it. If this software patent idiocy continues, it will be impossible to teach any higher mathematics at university in 200 years from now without violating someone's patents, but I'm sure some companies already have licensing plans in the drawer for this scenario. Crazy...

The Courts

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

People need to understand that in most western countries, the judiciary is a kind of priesthood utterly divorced from reality or common sense. What matters to lawyers and judges are not concepts like "justice", "equity" or "reason". What matters to them is the written rule of the law, and how it is best spun into ways that benefit both the priesthood and its patrons--the wealthy and powerful. The courts have no interest in the effects of their judgements. They have interest only in which lawyers arguments were more pleasing in the eyes of legal dogma.

This is a very, very serious problem which has only gotten worse in recent decades. The fact that most politicians are drawn from this clique has only accelerated the utter divorce of the courts from reality. Decisions like these are symptomatic of a judicial system that has broken down at a basic level. There are more across the legal spectrum: lenient corporate fines, excessive tort compensation, stringent libel fines, patents in general, children being convicted of child sex abuse, the rollback of habeas corpus, excess cost of legal defence, battery, etc, etc. The court system is entirely broken.

We live in an age of the misrule of law. If things get any worse, we'll be better off with no legal system at all.

Re:Hello World

[Bakkster]

Well, "Hello World" happens to be one of the very first programs ever made and has plenty of prior art.

That's never stopped patent offices from awarding a patent anyway.