Patents with source code

Posted Aug 29, 2012 10:26 UTC (Wed) by wookey (guest, #5501)
In reply to: Patents with source code by giraffedata
Parent article: Mobile patent wars: Google goes on the attack

Most software patents are nothing more than an idea. A reasonably detailed idea in most cases, but it's just a specification of a process. Have you read many? Sometimes you get a flowchart but often not even that. The 'inventor' may well have made an actual implementation but it's almost never included in the patent (see the above discussion about including the source in patents). Also remember that it usually consists of a basic idea modified/built-on in many separate claims, and the validity of each claim must be challenged separately. You have to show that _all_ of them are invalid to fully invalidate the patent.

But still, whether it 'works' (how exactly would you define that?), really isn't part of the legal definition, and thus isn't something you can usefully challenge on, SFAIK.

We do have an actual (european) patent agent on LWN these days who might be able to give chapter and verse on this point.

Patents with source code

Posted Aug 29, 2012 18:10 UTC (Wed) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

Most software patents are nothing more than an idea

As someone pointed out earlier, those patents aren't really a test of whether you can patent a mere idea, because it's usually obvious from the idea alone that it works. Of course, it also means that the maxim "you can't patent an idea" can be construed as false, because you might say there exist cases where the idea is indistinguishable from the invention.

But still, whether it 'works' (how exactly would you define that?), really isn't part of the legal definition,

I still don't know whether you believe the legal definition distinguishes between idea and invention, which is what's really relevant to this thread. Whether that difference consists of "proving that it works" is a fuzzier question.