[News] EPO Explains Why Software Patents Are Out of the Question

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EPO Wins Patent for Jesuitical Casuistry

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| As the EPO says, software does not distinguish "between technical and
| non-technical processes". The reason it doesn't distinguish is because it is
| a completely factitious distinction: it doesn't exist. Software is just a
| bunch of algorithms working on data, outputting data; it doesn't
| solve "technical" problems, it solve mathematical ones. Software is
| mathematics.
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[url]http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/07/epo-wins-patent-for-jesuitical.html[/url]

Recent:

Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates
Say

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| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
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[url]http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129[/url]

$10K For Microsoft's Club Dues

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| After Microsoft went public with its patent licensing specs the other day, I
| took a closer look at the agreements you have to sign -- and the cash you
| have to fork over. To license patents from any one Microsoft product, you
| need to pay $10,000 up front, no questions asked, on top of per-copy-sold
| duties for your product.
|
| It's about what I expected from Microsoft. Good on them that they allow you
| to peruse and make use of the protocols without charge if you just want to
| work with them privately and not develop something that's going to be
| released to others. But everything outside of that requires payment -- and
| that $10K entry dues per Microsoft product is a great way to keep all of the
| noncommercial open source players out of the game.
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[url]http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/10k_for_microso.html[/url]

WIPO patent committee embarks on positive agenda

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| The fact that the WIPO patent committee has decided to request the
| International Bureau studies on “exceptions from patentable subject matter
| and limitations to the rights, inter alia research exemption and compulsory
| licenses” and “patents and standards” is testament that the WIPO of 2008 is
| not the WIPO that invoked “Intellectual Property as a Power tool for
| Development”.
|
| Here below is the Annex to the Summary by the Chair which lists the eighteen
| non-exhaustive list of issues for further elaboration and discussion in the
| future. This list includes such topics as “Economic impact of the patent
| system, Alternative models for innovation, Patents and health (including
| exhaustion, the Doha Declaration and other WTO instruments, patent
| landscaping) and Relation of patents with other public policy issues.”
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[url]http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=39&p=124[/url]

Open Parliament

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| In private a government delegate compared
| Microsoft's public affairs methods with the scientology cult.
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[url]http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-54634/open-parliament[/url]
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