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Authored by: Ian Al on Monday, June 03 2013 @ 03:51 AM EDT |
From the pdf of BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE
OF INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
IN SUPPORT OF NEITHER PARTY
While literal copying is the
province of copyright law, the ease
of appropriating
software source code makes the patented inventions
included in
the code uniquely susceptible to instant
appropriation.
CONCLUSION
Patentable subject matter under Section
101 is
restricted to inventions that involve a technological
contribution and do
not preempt a fundamental
principle. Returning the focus to these
substantive
principles of patentability is necessary to restore
balance to the
patent system’s policy objective of
fostering innovation without improperly
impacting
competition.
The premise that a patentable
'technological contribution' can be 'appropriated' by copying source code is, of
course, both contrary to the law and not a technological fact of
computing.
If the source code can be studied to discover the ideas used
in its writing, they can only be abstract ideas deduced from the text and, thus,
a judicial exclusion from §101. The brief is full of information of the
financial value of the market in software products and completely wrong on the
law and on how computers and software work.
--- Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid! [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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