Re: [Fsfe-uk] AskIgor: (A program, not agony uncle!) Another software patent case study

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, 2003-11-22 at 02:37, Robin Green wrote:
> So the patent in question appears to cover the scientific method.
> 
> Oh no sorry, my mistake! It only covers the scientific method
> "on a computer".
> 
> Such a different kettle of fish!

Sadly, this appears to be something of a 'loophole' in current patent
legislation. The "as such" clause does something similar; you cannot
patent computer programs as such, but if they have a technical effect,
you can patent it.

It's the same with programs, algorithms, methods (these are all really
the same thing). You cannot patent the algorithm itself, but you can
patent the application of the algorithm. So in the above, the technical
effect is more effective debugging of software. 

This line of argument is quite dangerous: although there is a difference
between patenting an algorithm and patenting the application of an
algorithm, in practice the difference doesn't matter: patenting the
application has a similar enough effect. However, it is the difference
which is used to excuse software patenting.

Cheers,

Alex.