I was surprised to read your earlier entry that Europe doesn't
recognize software patents (I've worked for companies that filed
patents in Europe) so I did a little (very little) research to that
claim.
"EPC excludes "programs for computers" from patentability (Art. 52(2))
to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program
"as such" (Art. 52(3)). This has been interpreted to mean that any
invention which makes a non-obvious "technical contribution" or solves
a "technical problem" in a non-obvious way is patentable even if that
technical problem is solved by running a computer program.[12]"
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent#Europe
best,
Johnny
On Sep 15, 2009, at 10:07 AM, Miguel Arroz wrote:
Hi!
That example is tricky. Data structures can be considered
mathematical concepts (in portugal we call "informatica" to
everything, but the english language clearly makes a distinction
between software engineering and computer science). Can you patent a
mathematical concept? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
This raises the question of what is patented in a software patent:
the implementation or the concept?
Yours
Miguel Arroz
On 2009/09/15, at 19:43, Mike Schrag wrote:
Copyright is a very different set of laws, protecting a different
issue, though. My main point still stands -- if you're FOR
traditional patents, why would you be AGAINST software patents. All
the same intrinsic reasons for existence apply and several of the
same problems (i invented it independently, but you got the patent,
so you win). If you're against traditional patents, too, then
that's an entirely different story. Like I said, there's huge abuse
in the system largely in terms of grants of what most developers
would consider obvious patents, but I don't know that they're
intrinsically bad as a concept. If you invent some fundamentally
new data structure that makes your app substantially better at what
it does, it's in the public's interest that you disclose the
algorithm or process you came up with so that other people can
extend it in the future, but the trade-off is obviously that you
get exclusive rights to the process for a certain time period. Like
I said below, 20 years seems too long in our industry -- it's not
like pharma where you might have an R&D process that literally took
many years start-to-finish ... I don't know what a fair time period
is, but the concept seems appropriate.
ms
On Sep 15, 2009, at 12:52 PM, Anjo Krank wrote:
Where to start :) They really, truly impede progress, Software is
already protected by copyright. For other reasons:
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/explain.html
But the basics are: if you are a dev in a small company, you'd be
utterly, royally crazy to be for software patents. The offer
absolutely no protection if you have any and will kill you if you
don't.
Cheers, Anjo
Am 15.09.2009 um 18:10 schrieb Mike Schrag:
As I understand it, NeXT (and now Apple) actually has a patent on
KVC and O-R mapping ... They seem obvious now (well, unless
you've looked at EOF source :) ), but pretty novel in 1994. It's
a weird thing for me. People obviously abuse the hell out of
them, but if you believe regular patents are legit, it seems to
me there is obviously _something_ to software patents. I think
the "obviousness" test is not being effectively applied, but I
suppose if you come up with something TRULY novel, why shouldn't
you have protection on it just like someone who invents some
mechanical device? 20 YEARS might be a bit much .... meh . oh
well. It is what it is at this point.
On Sep 15, 2009, at 11:55 AM, Q wrote:
On 16/09/2009, at 1:09 AM, André Mitra wrote:
you don't have Apple stock?
Software patents are just evil. I recently investigated the
possibility of writing something for the iphone but the patent
indemnity cost for one of the key technology components it
required was prohibitively expensive.
If used to defend against competition of a real shipping product
I can see the value in software patents. But when they are used
purely as a cash generating portfolio with no real commercial
interest, that just isn't right.
On 15-Sep-09, at 10:52 AM, Anjo Krank wrote:
Death to software patents (and their holders!)
Cheers, Anjo
Am 15.09.2009 um 15:57 schrieb Mike Schrag:
apple has patents on many aspects of WebObjects that are
valuable
On Sep 15, 2009, at 9:54 AM, Mike Nowak wrote:
I just don't understand why an enterprise level technology
like WebObjects is a state secret. I can understand why
consumer products need a level of secrecy to build
excitement and not to cannibalize sales but WebObjects?
On Sep 13, 2009, at 2:45 PM, David LeBer wrote:
Mike,
Not to be harsh, but you are not going to get that. Apple
is not going to make any kind of public statement about
WebObjects NOT being deprecated.
If Apple had depreciated WO they would have issued a
statement to that effect. They haven't.
--
Mike Nowak
Center for Health Communications Research
The University of Michigan
http://chcr.umich.edu
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Seeya...Q
Quinton Dolan - [email protected]
Gold Coast, QLD, Australia (GMT+10)
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