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Re: Why are software patents wrong?
From: |
threeseas |
Subject: |
Re: Why are software patents wrong? |
Date: |
Mon, 18 Oct 2004 16:14:50 GMT |
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Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.1 (X11/20040626) |
Alexander Terekhov wrote:
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:
[...]
Software is the implementation of an algorithm, which is not patentable.
Really? Sez who?
Copyright law is more suitable for the protection of software.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=40A37619.EFFC5C1F%40web.de
regards,
alexander.
from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wwp
(rather than an indirect party of industry or lawyer group)
copyright:
WHAT WORKS ARE PROTECTED?
Copyright protects "original works of authorship" that are fixed in a
tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly
perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine
or device. Copyrightable works include the following categories:
1. literary works;
2. musical works, including any accompanying words
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
4. pantomimes and choreographic works
5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
7. sound recordings
8. architectural works
These categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer
programs and most "compilations" may be registered as "literary works";
maps and architectural plans may be registered as "pictorial, graphic,
and sculptural works."
WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal
copyright protection. These include among others:
* Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression
(for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or
recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been
written or recorded)
* Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or
designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or
coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
* Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts,
principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a
description, explanation, or illustration
* Works consisting entirely of information that is common property
and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars,
height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables
taken from public documents or other common sources)
-----------------------------
IS there contridiction here?
But then what about Patents....
BTW, contrary to the information at the google link you provided, there
is NO ASSUMED qualification that a program is always written in such a
manner to provide increased ease of use or improved productivity. As a
matter of fact, the product produced by MS are created with teh mindset
of making people need MS, which leads to many prolems not fitting patent
qualification, but rather illegal monoplization, not to mention the
inherent manifestation of the "user frustration function" as the sum
result of that mindset.
-----------------------------
Patents: (from my own site http://threeseas.net/mind/patent-clips.html
but clipped from the USPTO site -- so I don't have the USPTO link handy ATM)
WHAT CAN BE PATENTED
The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be
patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained.
In the language of the statute, any person who invents or discovers any
new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter,
or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent, subject
to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word process is
defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes
industrial or technical processes. The term machine used in the statute
needs no explanation. The term manufacture refers to articles which are
made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term composition of
matter relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of
ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject
matter taken together include practically everything which is made by
man and the processes for making the products.
The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be useful. The
term useful in this connection refers to the condition that the subject
matter has a useful purpose and also includes operativeness, that is, a
machine which will not operate to perform the intended purpose would not
be called useful, and therefore would not be granted a patent.
Interpretations of the statute by the courts have defined the limits of
the field of subject matter which can be patented, thus it has been held
that the laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas are not
patentable subject matter.
A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent
is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said,
and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete
description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a
patent is sought is required.
----
International Protection of Industrial Property
Industrial property deals principally with the protection of inventions,
marks (trademarks and service marks) and industrial designs, and the
repression of unfair competition.
The three subjects first mentioned have certain features in common
inasmuch as protection is granted for inventions, marks and industrial
designs in the form of exclusive rights of exploitation. The repression
of unfair competition is not concerned with exclusive rights, but is
directed against acts of competition contrary to honest practices in
industrial or commercial matters, for example, in relation to
undisclosed information (trade secrets).
Inventions
An invention is a novel idea which permits in practice the solution of a
specific problem in the field of technology. Under most legislations
concerning inventions, the idea, in order to be protected by law
("patentable"), must be new in the sense that it has not already been
published or publicly used; it must be non-obvious ("involve an
inventive step") in the sense that it would not have occurred to any
specialist in the particular industrial field, had such a specialist
been asked to find a solution to the particular problem; and it must be
capable of industrial application in the sense that it can be
industrially manufactured or used.
A patent is a document, issued by a government office, which describes
the invention and creates a legal situation in which the patented
invention can normally only be exploited (made, used, sold, imported)
by, or with the authorization of, the patentee. The protection of
inventions is limited in time (generally 20 years from the filing date
of the application for the grant of a patent).
Unfair Competition
The repression of unfair competition is directed against acts or
practices, in the course of trade or business, that are contrary to
honest practices, including, in particular:
* acts which may cause confusion with the products or services, or
the industrial or commercial activities, of an enterprise;
* false allegations which may discredit the products or services,
or the industrial or commercial activities, of an enterprise;
* indications or allegations which may mislead the public, in
particular as to the manufacturing process of a product or as to the
quality, quantity or other characteristics of products or services;
* acts in respect of unlawful acquisition, disclosure or use of
trade secrets;
* acts causing a dilution or other damage to the distinctive power
of another's mark or taking undue advantage of the goodwill or
reputation of another's enterprise.
Protection of industrial property is not an end in itself: it is a means
to encourage creative activity, industrialization, investment and honest
trade. All this is designed to contribute to more safety and comfort,
less poverty and more beauty, in the lives of men.
========================================================================
So where does software really fit? Copyright, patent, both, neither???
What is missing in this is the base line or foundation of what software
is. Leaving a lack of understanding and failure to establish the physics
of abstraction creation and use.
And until that is done, there can be no arguement as to what anyone in
such a field would or wouldn't have commonly done given a problem to
solve using software.
You cannot specialize in something until you properly understand it.
It seems clear that the only thing understood about programming is to
make it up as you go along as a matter of convience. Follow the money in
doing this...make believe.
The results of doing this is the growing mess we have today, where
lawyers are the only ones certain to win. follow the money?
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, (continued)
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Bjoern, 2004/10/16
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, ray, 2004/10/16
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Liam Slider, 2004/10/16
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Paul Hovnanian P.E., 2004/10/16
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Paul Hovnanian P.E., 2004/10/18
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, threeseas, 2004/10/18
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Alexander Terekhov, 2004/10/18
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Rui Miguel Seabra, 2004/10/18
- Message not available
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, threeseas, 2004/10/18
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Rui Miguel Seabra, 2004/10/18
- Message not available
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, threeseas, 2004/10/20
- Re: Why are software patents wrong?, Rui Miguel Seabra, 2004/10/20