On Fri 29.08.2003 at 10:52:33AM +0100, Mark Benson wrote: > Is this for real?
Might be. > I was aware of patents being granted for software, but this looks like open > season on all but the largest companies with teams of patent lawers... they > would have a field day enforcing their intelectual property. > > It would be near impossible for free development if as is mentioned on the > new home page, patents are granted for the simplest of software processes. It is already the case in the US and Japan. Patents are granted in Europe (already 30000 of them), but have no legal value... yet. However, the real problem is that the Patent Office has nothing to lose and everything to gain in accepting any patent, as stupid as it can be, since they get money for *each* granted patent. > On the other hand, a pragmatic view would be that software development would > stagnate for the next 25 or so years (can't remember the exact time a patent > protects an idea), but after that its a free for all... not a nice prospect, > having to put off all your projects till the stupid patents run out. 20 years. > However, I suspect that it will be difficult to gain patents on all but the > newest processes (I use processes to refer to both software > methods/algorithms and business processes) after all, you can only apply for > a patent if the idea is not already in the public domain, thats not to say > that many large companies have or are in the process or obtaining patents. This is only the theory. In the real world, the patent office accepts anything that has been written in a bit complicated manner and looks difficult to understand. Including a patent on "buying with the mean of a cathodic ray tube and an electronic communication system", i.e. electronic commerce... Patents should not only be new processes, but also processes that cannot be *easily* set up by professionals of the given domain. But most software patents are covering trivial systems (like Amazon's "one-click buy", or Adobe's "progression bar") and are covering far too large technology areas (like this electronic commerce patent). > Expect to see test cases if the proposals become "law". Economists from all over the world have recently complained to european parliament about the soon-to-come european patent law, and the vote has once more been postponed (to September, 22nd instead of September, 1st). Initially, the vote should have taken place in June, but people have then complained enough for it to be postponed to September. Matthieu -- (~._.~) Matthieu Weber - Université de Jyväskylä (~._.~) ( ? ) email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ( ? ) ()- -() public key id : 452AE0AD ()- -() (_)-(_) "Humor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht (Germain Muller)" (_)-(_) ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
