It may end up cementing software patents? [LWN.net]

It may end up cementing software patents?

Posted Mar 26, 2008 15:50 UTC (Wed) by epa (subscriber, #39769)
Parent article: Patent reform bill unable to clean up patent mess (ars technica)

The worrying thing is, as Gregory Aharonian pointed out, if the Congress makes laws mentioning
software patents or even excluding certain areas from the scope of algorithm patentability,
this implicitly means that patents are to be allowed on software in general.  The exception
proves the rule.  Are there such problems with this Bill?

to post comments

It may end up cementing software patents?

Posted Mar 26, 2008 16:10 UTC (Wed) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link] (1 responses)

The courts have said that software patents are allowed and I think previous laws already say
it also. Even if this law were not to, it would not remove the fact that Software Patents are
considered viable in the USA and many countries with treaties with the USA. Heck they are even
legal in 'part' in the EU (they just allowed a patent on particular methods in syslog).
Probably the only place they aren't legal these days are in the minds of us who consider it
ridiculous.

Meanwhile in Europe

Posted Mar 27, 2008 20:06 UTC (Thu) by Tobu (subscriber, #24111) [Link]

The European patent office (the EPO) is certainly lax and does not reject applications for software patents. Nevertheless, these are explicitly non-patentable since 1973. Recent attempts to modify the law backfired, re-affirming the illegality of software patents.

Timeline - The fight goes on