On 20040308T200359+0000, Tom Badran wrote: > What europe has is quite different to the american system. There are no > software patents as such, but sufficently complex inventions (including the > algorithms used for mp3 as a specific example) are patentable just like any > other invention. Under current law, algorithms are not patentable, yet EPO grants such patents. > It basically means its very hard to flood the system with > trivial patents like amazon and such do in the US, but genuine inventions are > still protected under patent law. The bar for what is considered an invention > is much, much higher essentially, and it prevents the patenting of 'business > processes'. There are many examples of silly software patents granted by the EPO. A horror gallery is here: http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/index.en.html For example, http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/samples/ep800142/index.en.html (a method for converting MS-DOS file names to Windows long file names) -- Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, Debian developer http://kaijanaho.info/antti-juhani/blog/en/debian
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature