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On Tue, 2006-03-14 at 16:58 +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
> There is now no barrier at all. The objections have been simply ignored and
> the UKPO has a workaround catch-all that both enables them to say they don't
> allow software patents and at the same time allow every software patent
> application that includes a claim that the idea preceded the creation of the
> software implementation.
As in, everything? It's fairly hard to have an implementation *before*
the idea.
> "There is no doubt that the invention as claimed would involve a computer
> program for its implementation; the applicant also says that this is the case.
> But as CFPH indicates, that does not establish, in and of itself, that the
> invention is not patentable," the UKPO representative explained.
If the only possible implementation is computer-based, then surely it's
a software patent (a patent that covers inventions that can never be
anything but software...).
> It's worse than the USA system. The actual patent is for Sun's Java bytecode,
> the patent on which has now been upheld in UK law by the UKPO.
Hmm. Wouldn't that make Microsoft's .NET illegal, since it's
bytecode-based? Can't imagine they'd be too pleased about that...
> Democracy? What's that?
Out of interest, are there any countries that *do* have sensible patent
laws?
bma
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