Stopsoftwarepatents

IPWatchDog: Software is the New Engine and Must be Patentable - "I have long since lost hope that those who are truly anti-patent and anti-software zealots will ever come to accept that software should be patentable. For reasons that are beyond me they will not even admit that software can be patented. Talking to such a lunatic fringe is hardly worth the time it takes, or the adjida it causes, and seems to approximate a real life Monty Python sketch where the people who claim to have the far superior intellect have such narrow minds that even in the face of overwhelming proof they cling to the irrational and simply incorrect view that software is in fact math and everyone knows math isn’t patentable. Yes, the lunacy is high, very high indeed. So high that the only reason worth continuing to write articles like this is to hopefully prevent the overall anti-patent and anti-invention hysteria that seems to be gaining steam. But the real goal is to try and make sure that any policy makers, decision makers and even those who wear black robes and work at"

H-online: Ubuntu to continue using Mono - "According to Remnant, the Ubuntu Project takes patent issues seriously and, should a rights holder claim a patent infringement, the board would commit to a review of the claim. Currently, the board as received no claims of infringement against the Mono stack and is unaware of any claims being received by any other similar project. As patents are generally registered to protect against litigation, rather than as an intent to litigate, the board feel that as there is currently no claim of infringement, the patent itself is not a "sufficient reason to warrant exclusion from the Ubuntu Project"."

ITWorld: Sweden aims high for creation of a single EU patent system - "However, opponents of a unified patent system say just the opposite. "With the financial crisis and climate change as looming priorities, the Swedish presidency is going to be hard-pressed to move forward an agenda that has been mired in deep political fights for the last thirty years," said Benjamin Henrion, president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). The FFII argues that a Community Patent will make it easier to pass software patents in Europe, and it says a single patent litigation area is merely a way to circumvent the legal authority of the European Court of Justice, which it trusts could safeguard the E.U. from software patents. "While large US software firms keep up their hopes for cheap enforceable software patents in Europe, the facts on the ground suggest that this debate will crawl, not run," Henrion said."

ArsTechnica: New Linux patch could circumvent Microsoft's FAT patents - "A Linux developer has published a new kernel patch that provides a workaround to avoid Microsoft's patents on the FAT filesystem. The patch, which has undergone extensive legal review by patent lawyers, could make it possible to use FAT on Linux without having to pay licensing fees to Microsoft."

PLI: Patentable Subject Matter: Data Transformation Claim Strategies after Bilski (Audio-only) - "As the Federal Circuit and Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences continue to decide cases on patentable subject matter by applying the Bilski test, practitioners find it more difficult to draft reliable method claims to software and business procedures. Still to be explored by the court are the limits of the exception they drew in the Bilski decision for methods that transform data directly representative of physical objects or substances. The example discussed by the court in Bilski is the transformation of x-ray attenuation data, produced by a computed tomography scanner, into a particular visual depiction of a physical object."

Techdirt: Interview With A Patent Troll... Which Skips The Key Questions - "But worst of all, the article presents Spangenberg as always being right and always having big companies settle (or that he wins his cases). You would think that any profile on Spangenberg would include little facts like that he was caught shuffling patents around in order to sue companies multiple times over the same patent -- despite a settlement promising not to. Doing so eventually cost Spangenberg $4 million. Robin Hood? Or how about his attempts to stretch what highly questionable patents cover? For example, patent 5,493,490, which covers a system for making electronic proposals to buy cars (which, yes, you would think seems obvious enough, but what do you know?), which Spangenberg is asserting against dozens of companies who don't sell cars, but do sell other stuff online."

IPKat: Letter from AmeriKat - "If rumour is correct and President Obama’s administration manages to install Sotomayor to the Supreme Court by October in time for the Court’s next term, she may be presiding over the much-anticipated judgment in Bilski. The AmeriKat’s brief investigation into Sotomayor’s intellectual property decisions seems to show her leaning in favor of larger corporations and rights holders. However, this limited evidence and Sotomayor’s few judgments concerning patent cases have not given the AmeriKat any definitive guidance on how to predict Sotomayor’s approach to Bilski. If it is anything like her ex-husband’s stance, however, Sotomayor’s judgment will not be forming part of any ground-breaking judgment that many are hoping. Where the AmeriKat has failed to predict Sotomayor’s attitude towards patent claims, she is eager to hear your views. To help you along your way, the AmeriKat suggests you look Sotomayor’s responses to the required Senate Committee of the Judiciary questionnaire."

FFII: Software Patents in Europe via caselaw of a Central Patent Court - "“We must moreover continue to attempt to harmonise the practise of granting patents for computer-implemented inventions at the European level. This is to be attempted by a common European patent court system (EPLA) in which the member states can voluntarily participate. Thereby a unified procedure and legal certainty are achieved.” --German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology"

Slideshare: Software Patents in Europe via caselaw of a Central Patent Court - "8. Central Caselaw “Baumann added that the new court was not intended to "codify software patents", but it was hoped it would provide better intellectual property protection for inventions with embedded software, such as mobile phones and satellite navigation systems.”--James Murray, IT Week [...] 10. Saint Graal „2009 must be the year for the negotiations in Brussels a breakthrough in the creation of the Community patent and a European patent court“ --Brigitte Zypries, German Ministry of Justice [...] 11. UPLS = United Patent Litigation System International treaty Treaty where EU could join Patent injunctions from Turkey No counter legislator Hand picked judges"

IP-watch: European Patent System, Court Top Priority Under Swedish EU Presidency - "But the main argument for continuing the discussions is the need for it, Josefsson said: "The urgency of making the patent system in Europe less costly and more accessible to particular small and medium-sized enterprises is there." The software industry supports the Swedish efforts. Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, said: “The Swedish presidency’s commitment to move the EU Community Patent forward is a breath of fresh air. We wish the new presidency all the success in their negotiations to achieve the agreement that SMEs have been waiting for so long.""

Civiactions: URGENT: Unlimited Software Patents In New Zealand. Act Now! - "NZ government is about to pass a new Patents Act. In the 8-year review, they seemingly forgot to consider the impacts of patents on computer software! Submissions on the bill are being accepted till 2 July, so we need to move fast. Make a submission now!"

LinuxJournal: SAP: Open Source's Friend or Foe? - "The problem here is that SAP likes software patents. In another obscure filing, this time to the European Patent Office, it spends pages arguing that the current, already-porous regime for granting patents on software in Europe should be loosened even further. Other ideas that SAP objects to in the European report include “Promote OSS initiatives targeted to commoditize software products of interest to European industries,” and the creation of the “European OSS forge” and “The European OSS test bed.”"

TradingMarkets: Software AG: high-tech region study provides further evidence of need to develop Eu - "Regional and national development of industry clusters are a fundamental component of modern strategic economic policy. Although Germany's Rhine-Main-Neckar cluster has one of the largest global concentration of resources it has not yet developed to the extent of similar clusters in the US, India or Finland. Impediments common to many European clusters include international awareness, access to venture capital, and lack of political support including an underdeveloped European software patent system."

LinexLegal: Microsoft To Pay Damages To Canadian Firm For Patent Infringement - "A jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has ruled against Microsoft Corp for willfully infringing US Patent 5,787,449 owned by a Toronto firm, i4i LP. On May 20, 2009, Microsoft was found liable to pay USD 200 million in damages resulting from lost profits and royalties, and the amount could be later increased by the judge if there is a finding of willful infringement."

BoycottNovell: Microsoft Gets Even Closer to the American Press, Promotes Vapourware - "A lot of people still fail to realise that NBC is very much a General Electric drone, so its information on energy matters will be affected accordingly. This is a recipe for disaster. Here is more coverage from MarketWatch and from Rupert Murdoch’s press. Microsoft getting closer to NBC Universal is the equivalent of Microsoft getting closer to General Electric, which recently they did directly when they announced a deal. Later on they also lobby together for software patents in Europe."

SSP: USPTO refuses to disclose Bilski's pending patent application - "The US Supreme Court will soon hear Bilski on why software and business method patents are so good for the US economy. I was trying to find out on the internet where the Bilski's pending patent application, and I ended up writing to the new USPTO President and ex-IBM David Kappos. I finally got an answer from an USPTO official that the Bilski's pending patent application cannot be seen by the public."

Microsoft: XML Paper Specification Licensing Overview - "There is a requirement that any XPS implementation that is distributed, licensed or sold contain a notice in the source code of the implementation indicating that Microsoft may have intellectual property associated with the implementation and to provide a link to where the license may be obtained from Microsoft."

Computerworld: Open source activists target software patents - "However, the Ministry of Economic Development says the third-stage review has already been completed and software patentability stands. "The Bill incorporates the outcomes of all three stages of the review. The issue of software patents was considered as part of the third stage, but a decision was taken not to exclude software from patentability," says an MED spokeswoman. Harrison suggests that accepting software patents, even tacitly, represents a capitulation to the view of United States authorities, and abandons a potentially powerful weapon in negotiations towards a New Zealand-US free trade agreement. Similar points have been made on the copyright and music-piracy fronts."

ITManagement: IBM Exec Selected to Head Patent Office - "The possibility of getting a tech-friendly name to head the USPTO is likely to be good news for many in the IT sector, which is rife with complaints about the current U.S. patent system. For one thing, IT patent cases have been on a sharp rise over the past few years, with a growing number of cases brought by "non-practicing entities," or "patent trolls" as they're often called by critics."

Law: Patent Litigation Weekly: Former Goodwin Procter Partner Now Patent Enforcer - "David Garrod, who left Goodwin Procter in 2008 to found a company called Bedrock Computer Technologies, believes in the value of intellectual property. He has to: Bedrock is an East Texas-based patent enforcement company that, as Joe Mullin reports this week at IP Law & Business, just filed an infringement suit against seven big Internet companies, including Google, Amazon, and MySpace. Garrod's using the folks from McKool Smith--well-known for bold representation of IP plaintiffs--to prosecute Bedrock's case."