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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 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe. FAQ: www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html