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White House Responds To Software Patents Petition

New submitter obliv!on writes "As previously discussed, the White House has started to reply to petitions on their 'We the People' website. They've now replied to the petition asking for an end to software patents. The response mentions the America Invents Act and encourages the use of the USPTO's open implementation website. Quoting: 'There's a lot we can do through the new law to improve patent quality and to ensure that only true inventions are given patent protection. But it's important to note that the executive branch doesn't set the boundaries of what is patentable all by itself. Congress has set forth broad categories of inventions that are eligible for patent protection. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have interpreted the statute to include some software-related inventions.' The response goes on to denote some open source and open data initiatives in government. It's nice to hear that the administration understands 'concerns that overly broad patents on software-based inventions may stifle the very innovative and creative open source software development community.' However, the overall response redirects action to the petitioners through participating in the open implementation site and contacting Congress, instead of a promise to prepare additional legislative measures for Congress to consider on behalf of the petitioners."

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  1. Re:I've got to hand it to the administration by StevenMaurer · · Score: 1, Troll

    Yours is the most impolitely worded show of ignorance and stupidity that I've read since I last perused WorldNutDaily.

    It's election season. If Obama offered a bill that declared the United States to be the bestest most wonderful nation on the planet which has ever been ever, Republicans in Congress would filibuster it on the grounds that he is a Socielst Muslen Kenyan who hates America and our Troops.

    And you think that his recommendation on solving the Patent issue would actually help?

    The Administration is right. The only way forward on this is for the "public" (i.e. massive multi-billion dollar companies like Google, Microsoft, etc) to petition Congress, telling them that overly broad patents are bad for business (i.e. bad for GOP campaign contributions).

    Everything else implied in your one line screed is bullshit.