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Bilski: what it means for free and open source software
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| In its new opinion, the court declined to settle the issue of when, if ever,
| software based inventions should be patentable. Even so, the new test in
| Bilski will probably limit the patentability of software.
|
| Future cases will shed further light on this issue. In the meantime, the
| holder of a poor quality software patent is likely to think more carefully
| about bringing a lawsuit, because the patent may be ruled invalid.
|
| The FOSS community and its supporters need to explain to our friends,
| neighbors, and legislators the practical realities of software patents. We
| need to continue to challenge received wisdom about innovation in software,
| and to explain that patents do not always foster innovation.
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http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=6466
COMMENTARY: Business-Method Patents—Down But Not Out?
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| The case most often cited for opening the door to business-method patents is
| State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Financial Group Inc., decided in 1998
| by the same court. That case, however, involved a fairly complex computer
| program, and all the court really said was that the validity of the patent
| should not turn on whether the “subject matter does ‘business’ instead of
| something else.” Even the poster child of business-method patents, the
| Amazon “one-click” patent, which was in the patent pipeline well before State
| Street, involved software operating on a specially designed client-server
| system.
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http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov08/7000
Recent:
Software Method Claims: Bilski in light of Benson
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| It is important to remember that the Supreme Court's decision in Gottschalk
| v. Benson is still controlling law. In that 1972 decision, the Supreme Court
| held unpatentable a method of converting a signal from "binary coded decimal"
| into "binary." The Benson method operates by using a "reentrant shift
| register" – a particular electronic memory circuit of the day. The rejected
| claim reads as follows:
|
| [...]
|
| Thus under Bilski/Benson, tying a software algorithm to particular computer
| hardware may well be unpatentable subject matter if the patent would still
| preclude all practical uses of the otherwise unpatentable algorithm.
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http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/11/software-method.html
Economist Critic of Software Patents gets Nobel Prize
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| The FFII congratulates Eric S. Maskin, an economist who has long criticised
| the patenting of software, for receiving the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics.
| Prof. Maskin and two colleagues receive the Prize for research into the
| optimal design of economic mechanisms. By applying his theory to the IT
| sector, Maskin demonstrated "that in such a dynamic industry, patent
| protection may reduce overall innovation and welfare."
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http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Economist_Critic_of_Software_Patents_gets_Nobel_Prize
Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates
Say
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| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
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http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129
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