Red Hat Says U.S. Patent System Is Broken

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CiccioB

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Feb 28, 2008
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Patents on code, and on logical expression in general, should be abolished altogether. An algorithm, be it short or very long, easy or very complex, should not be patented like for maths or physics equations.

Guess what would have happened if Newton applied for a patent for his physiscs laws.

Yet, code is just a way to descibe and solve a logic problem more like a physic law is a way to describe a natural phenomena. It's not "an invention" as the invention is the language used, not the to-be-patent solution.
Yet, in this era where information is the real value of economics, I doubt that one could ever dream that happening.



 

CiccioB

Distinguished
Feb 28, 2008
2
0
18,510
Patents on code, and on logical expression in general, should be abolished altogether. An algorithm, be it short or very long, easy or very complex, should not be patented like for maths or physics equations.

Guess what would have happened if Newton applied for a patent for his physiscs laws.

Yet, code is just a way to descibe and solve a logic problem more like a physic law is a way to describe a natural phenomena. It's not "an invention" as the invention is the language used, not the to-be-patent solution.
Yet, in this era where information is the real value of economics, I doubt that one could ever dream that happening.



 
G

Guest

Guest
totally agree with you, I'm fairly sure that most coders will aswell. The whole idea of patenting an algorithm is ridiculous ><

while(!StinkingRich()){
$patents++;
}
 
G

Guest

Guest
MichaelJ have you ever consider patenting your idea (code) ;-) it isn't bad at all but it may not last for long ;-) ...
I?m hopping you don?t mind that I join you that we file for:

while(!StinkingRich()){
$patents++;
//Play dirty
Thread patentWatcher = new Thread(delegate(){WaitEnoughAndSueThemAll($patents);});
patentWatcher.Start();
}
 
G

Guest

Guest
I never understood how patents were issued for software. So according to the patent office the first company to patent say software for EDI gets to be the sole supplier of EDI software? Since Word Perfect and Word do essentially the same thing how is it they are not in patent conflict? Software should be copyrighted like art. The intellectual property to be safeguarded is in the actual code not what it does. If you can figure out how to do what my code does fine invest the time or pay me for a license.
 
G

Guest

Guest
BTW I have book from the early seventies called "1001 algorithms" with the change in direction from the patent office since then am I now breaking patents in using these algorithms? I'm willing to bet most of the code patented since then use these basic algorithms in their code. Again I just don't understand? If I patented a program I created in the 60's to calculate payroll would I get to be the sole seller of software to calculate payroll? To the lawyers and patent people who have allowed this fiasco to exist I say "put the crack pipe down and stop eating the mushrooms".
 

virtualban

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Feb 16, 2007
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Patents should be reduced in time of validity. If one has an idea, he should have limited time to put it into practice or sell it, after which it should be of public domain. That would stop for example MS from using every idea around and effectively stopping competition because of their money bag and the ability to implement the idea before the original ideator (you know, in this field advertisement is very important, so nothing can be safely protected by just business secrets).
 
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