IBM offers 500 patents for open-source use

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Correction

My bad.

>>>You can patent your idea of how to build a better mousetrap but you cannot patent the idea of a mouse trap. Anyone else is free to patent their idea of how to build a better mousetrap<<<

In a hurry. This should be:

You can patent your implementation of a better mousetrap but you cannot patent the idea of a mousetrap. Anyone else is free to patent their implementation of a better mousetrap.

Ideas should not be patentable. The implementation of those ideas maybe, with very narrow and specific documentation and a working model, but not the idea itself. That is the problem with software patents. Software patents do not 'promote the progress of science and useful arts'. Software patents are used as anti-competitive devices and should both be unconstitutional and fall under the anti-tust laws.

The USPTO has failed miserably with software patents. They are arrogant and loaded with lawyers (the two, arrogance and lawyers, seem to be inseparable. Do they teach a semester of arrogance at law schools?). They need to hire programmers to look at their software patent applications. Lawyers are not competent to decide what is new in software.

Posted by: AmusedAtItAll   Posted on: 01/11/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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