This prompted me to look at my course notes, and here's a quote: "A patent may be granted for an invention only if following conditions are satisfied:
" The invention is new; " It involves an inventive step; " It is capable of industrial application; " The grant for a patent for it is not excluded by subsections (2) and (3) below... The exclusions referred to include: " A scheme, rule or method for performing any mental act, playing a game or doing business, or a program for a computer; " However, the Act only applies to a patent or application for a patent relating to a thing _as such_." I don't know what else they can patent; I certainly wouldn't imagine a protocol would be patentable. I hope there's not something else. Any other people in the UK know anything about this? Bob -- Bob Ham: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pkl.net/~node/ My music: http://mp3.com/obelisk_uk GNU Hurd: http://hurd.gnu.org/
