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US Software Patents

Monty Solomon wrote in comp.risks:

> Subject: US court throws out most software patents, John Oram > Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:29:43 -0400 > > John Oram, Microsoft has a problem, *IT Examiner*, 31 Oct 2008 > > Much of the patent portfolio of some of the world's biggest > software companies has become worthless overnight, thanks to a > ruling yesterday by the US patent court. > > The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in > Washington DC has decided that in the future, instead of > automatically granting a patent for a business practice, there > will be a specific testing procedure to determine how patentable > is that process. > > The decision is a nearly complete reversal of the court's > controversial State Street Bank judgment of 1998, which started > the stampede for patenting business practices. > >
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I found the above in comp.risks today.

F'ups set to comp.programming

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 [mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net) 
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CBFalconer
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(F'ups corrected - if a post is relevant to three groups, then the followups are also relevant until you have meandering and off-topic subthreads.)

This is good news for most software developers. Modern American use of patents, especially software patents, is totally against the principles for which the patent scheme was invented (it was to give small inventors some protection against large competitors, so that the small inventor could publish information without fear of competitors freely copying him and undercutting his prices - they would have to pay a licence fee so that the inventor gets his fair dues, while the invention can be quickly mass produced).

It will hopefully put a quick end to some companies' practice of patenting every little software idea. But will it lead to invalidation of existing meritless patents?

I'm in two minds about Halliburton's latest patent application:

If they use it to sue patent trolls out of business, then it would be a good thing for the rest of us!

Reply to
David Brown

Hopefully good news.

There is a mistake in the piece.

"Halliburton - the Texas-based company famous for pocketing billions from the war in Iraq "

Actually as of last year Haliburton relocated to a Middle Eastern country that does not have extradition to the USA... It still has the Texas "joint HQ" office but all the money and power has transferred out of the US to the new HQ in the ME . As have all their top people.

BTW apparently G W Bush bought a nice new ranch to retire to.... in Paraguay another country that does not have extradition to the USA

Some people saw the writing on the wall and got out before the US crash....

I think most of the top people in Bush's war on terror and Iraq and Iran and Syria and Afghanistan and N-Korea and Russia and.... can get out of the US with 90% of their very large assets in less than 6 hours.

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Reply to
Chris H

This is the sort of off-topic (and probable nonsense) that I wanted to avoid by setting follow-ups on the original.

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 [mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net) 
 [page]: 
            Try the download section.
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CBFalconer

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