Re: Software Patents Re: MP3 decoders' non-freeness
On Tue, Aug 06, 2002 at 08:50:11PM +0200, Arnoud Galactus Engelfriet wrote:
> You can also reason, if a program can cause a general purpose
> processor to do the same thing as a dedicated hardware board
> can do, and that board does something patentable, then the
> program must also be patentable. Otherwise you're being
> unfair to the inventor. This is what the Dutch patent office
> (Octrooiraad) did in the early '90s with a novel telephony
> switch.
Ugh. And here I thought the whole point of a patent was to cover
a novel method of achieving something, not to grant a monopoly on
the thing to be achieved.
Richard Braakman
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