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What can be "patented"?

In the beginning, patents were issued to mechanical devices that met 3 criteria: "new or novel", "useful", and "unobvious (to those skilled in the trade)". Additionally, one could only patent a specific "implementation" which eliminated the possibility of patenting an "idea". (This is how many patents are circumvented, by a suficiently different implementation.) Software patents are now often given on the "idea" rather than the implementation. This is wrong. For example, a patent can rightfully be given to a specific compression algorithm - or implemention of compression - without specific coding techniques or language. This is fine. But the "idea" of compression itself is NOT patentable. I think the patent office possibly needs to be re-educated to high tech and redefine what software patents can be to live up to the original concept of patents.

Posted by: edjsch   Posted on: 04/01/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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