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Software Patent Reform Happening Now

Posted by timothy on from the advancing-the-useful-arts-and-sausages dept.

Jim Hall writes "Many of us in IT recognize that software patents are a bad idea — you can patent just about anything if you put "on a computer" at the end of it. But now we can finally do something about it. Congress is considering the America Invents Act — your Representatives are very interested in hearing from you. Also, the USPTO is inviting public comments to change the system (you need to file by June 29, 2011.) I've written a blog post about software patents with more, starting with a primer of copyright and patents."

1 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Rrrrriiiight.... by Jim+Hall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No... no they're not. They are interested in how much money they can get from their campaign "donors" to vote one way or the other.

    I call BS on that one. Have you actually talked to your Congressperson? They do want to hear from you.

    Maybe I'm lucky. I live in Minnesota, so I have Senator Al Franken: privacy, net neutrality. I actually met him a few times, which is what got me interested in doing something about software patent reform. Al made a great comment to me: "It's your job (constituent) to tell me what's important, and my job (Senator) to go do something about that in Washington - but first you need to let me know what's important."

    And true to form, when I contacted his office, they listened to me. At my first contact, I spoke with the office's state director. Then I got to meet the constituent affairs person. That led to a conversation with the office's lead counsel on patent issues, and who works with Al on the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Everyone was very helpful, and very engaged with what I had to say. His office is the one that pointed out the USPTO RFC to me - I had missed it. (USPTO web site is hard to navigate.)

    Don't be defeatist with your "They are interested in how much money they can get from donors" attitude, and do something about it. On Slashdot, we've been bitching about software patent reform for years (and I have a low UID). Finally, now we have a window of opportunity. Don't lose it!