There have been instances where a patent has been applied for a specific algorithm by using hardware acceleration provided by x86 cpus. Common example is accelerating video encoding by using the sse/mmx/3dnow extended instruction set, which differs slightly between cpu models and brands. This ties the software to a specific piece of hardware without actually building the hardware itself. Trivial, yes, and a clever lawyer can still prove dependence on h/w as a reason for not considering it as a software patent.
You can refer to almost any patent on h.264 encoding acceleration and you will find that most of them deal with just accelerating motion searches using some sort of super-scalar execution technique, limiting anyone from using that technique even though it is only a (faster) software implemention of a standard. On 8/13/10, Sudhanwa Jogalekar <sudhanwa....@gmail.com> wrote: > 2010/8/10 Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) <r...@linux-delhi.org>: >> On Tuesday 10 Aug 2010, Ankit Chaturvedi wrote: >>> I'm not a lawyer, though i have been on the wrong side of software >>> patents many times. >>> >>> It's not completely true that software patents are not allowed in >>> india. The simple answer is, it depends on the technology. Mobile, >>> multimedia codecs, et al are frought with patent issues that can be >>> lawfully upheld in india. >> >> Not a lawyer either, but AFAIR "patents on software per se" are not >> permitted in India. This is generally interpreted as disallowing >> software patents but permitting patents of embedded software which is >> tightly bound to the hardware it runs on. Of course, everyone >> interprets the "per se" to their own advantage. >> > Patents on embedded devices is different than software patents. > Software can not be seperated from embedded device and used > individually without the required hardware. As such, it does not > become a software patent. > >> To the best of my knowledge a number of patents have been granted on >> software in India too, but using an under-handed technique. However, >> standard patents like on MP3 and MPEG technology are technically not >> valid in India unless implemented embedded. > > I am asking for some URL for any such patent so that I can go through > it and understand the software patents issue in more detail. > > Looks like software patents in India are "just HURD not SEEN" ;-) > > -Sudhanwa > > > > ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! > www.projects4students.com > > _______________________________________________ > Ilugd mailing list > Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org > http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd > -- Sent from my mobile device -- Ankit Chaturvedi GPG: 05DE FDC5 468B 7D9F 9F45 72F1 F7B9 9E16 ECA2 CC23 <http://www.google.com/profiles/ankit.chaturvedi> _______________________________________________ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
