Nandalal Gunaratne wrote:
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the detailed answer and the link. I am
really concerned about FOSS development/migration in a
country with such patent laws. Sri Lanka has not got
patent laws yset. Copyrights and IP foor software was
brought in recently - two years ago - before that we
were a pirate state - well we still are in a much
smaller way :-)
I hope we never have patent laws, but I doubt it.
That populous nation to your north-west has recently introduced software
patents - for an excellent background article on this unfortunate and
very ill-conceived legislative move see:
http://pd.cpim.org/2005/0130/01302005_snd.htm
Tim C
Unfortunately, patents on software algorithms and
business methods have
been granted here in Australia since 1990, and the
courts have upheld
some of these patents (but have struck out others).
The only saving
grace is that the test for novelty was recently made
more rigorous - now
an invention does not meet the test of novelty if
aspects of it have
been described previously but in separate published
documents, and if
the combination of those components is obvious (to
someone "skilled in
the art"). In the past, an invention had to have
been described in its
entirety in one document to have been considered
"prior art" - now the
scope of prior art is much wider, which is a good
thing, and will
hopefully prevent many trivial software, algorithm
and business methods
patents which are just minor variations on a theme
from being granted,
or at worst, from being upheld in the courts.
However, the whole system
is still stacked ridiculously in favour of the
patent applicant. I was
shocked to learn that as a private citizen, in order
to object to the
granting of a patent, not only do I need to pay a
substantial
"opposition fee" (about $600), if my objection is
overruled by the
Patents Commissioner, I have to pay the patent
applicant's costs, which
can run to thousands or tens of thousands of
dollars. It seems that the
patent system assumes that all patents are for the
public good, and that
anyone opposing a patent is just a troublemaker. We
desperately need an
organisation like PUBPAT (see http://www.pubpat.org/
) here in
Australia. In fact, every country needs one!
Tim C
