Re: [Australia-public-discuss] Video/audio from patents talk and committee hearing

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

> With regards to TRIPS, I don't think anyone allows patents of Maths.

Well, TRIPS only sets a minimum of what has to be patentable.

Countries can allow patents on math or software if they like.

In the US, a CAFC judge recently ruled that software is math, and math
is patentable if "as a practical matter, the use of a computer is
required".

http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/09-1358.pdf

> And Europe clearly excludes "Software as such", and this was tested in
> their parliament.

The law (EPC art 52) excludes "software as such", but the European
Patent Office grants software patents anyway, and the courts sometimes
uphold them.

So in a theoretical sense (just reading the law), there are no valid
software patents in Europe.  But if you ask a software developer who's
been threatened with EPO-granted patents, or who's been found guilty of
patent infringement by a judge, they'll tell you that software patents
are quite real in Europe :-(

The Symbian and Halliburton rulings in the UK are two examples:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/The_Halliburton_rulings_by_UK_High_Court_-_2006-2011
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Symbian_v._Comptroller_General_%282008,_UK%29

There's also an example in Germany, and one I've yet to confirm in the
Netherlands.

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Software_patents_exist_in_Europe,_kinda


There's also a page there about free software exceptions:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Free_software_exception

(en.swpat.org is the publicly-editable wiki hosted by ESP.  You're all
invited to add to and develop it.)


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