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Patent Links

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About Patent Law

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Patent Law

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Patent Resources

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International Patent

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International Legal Information Resources

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Convergence of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Laws

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Online legal journals

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Patent searching - public sources

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Commercial patent search sources

  • M·CAM DOORS is a full-service intellectual property rights actuarial company.
  • Delphion, formerly the IBM patent server. It is a subscription-based site for patent searching. Includes US, European, Japanese, WIPO and INPADOC patent information.
  • Lexis-Nexis, Lexis includes several databases of patent law and patent grants and applications. US, European, INPADOC patents are available in English, along with Japanese abstracts in English.
  • MicroPatent, MicroPatent has several patent searching features, including full-text searches of patents by major classification from US, European, WIPO, and abstracts of Japanese patents.
  • Questel-Orbit, provides PlusPat, a fee-based database of patent documents from 70 worldwide patenting authorities.
  • Westlaw includes several databases of patent law and patent information, including patent applications and grants in English for US, European, French, and WIPO sources. It also includes Japanese patent and abstracts and the Derwent Patents Citation Index.

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Patents and the Patent Problem

Back to top ]  [ About Patents ]  [ Articles About the Patent Problem ]  [ The World of Games Patents ]  [ Patently Absurd ]  [ Patents and Open Standards ]  [ Submarine Patents ]  [ Other patent articles ]  [ Patent Busting ]  [ Disturbed by software patents? ] 

About Patents

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Articles About the Patent Problem

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The World of Games Patents

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Patently Absurd

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Patents and Open Standards

Definitions of Open Standards on the Web

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Submarine Patents

A description of Submarine patent, provided by Wikipedia

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Other patent articles

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Patent Busting

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Disturbed by software patents?

Contributed by marbux in this post

Have Ever wonder why so many software developers are so disturbed by software patents? Part of the reason is that according to the patent courts, language itself is now patentable. The patent courts now allow the languages used by software developers to be patented. Could you get any work done if you had to pay for every word you used? Think we're joking? Read on:

4.6 The Board is aware that its comparatively broad interpretation of the term "invention" in Article 52(1) EPC will include activities which are so familiar that their technical character tends to be overlooked, such as the act of writing using pen and paper.

Hitachi automatic auction method, T0258/03-3.5.1, Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, pg. 16 (April 21, 2004); (PDF) (construing E.U. Patent Convention Article 52.)

Suggested further reading:

  • Patent Absurdity, by Free Software Foundation leader Richard M. Stallman, in The Guardian (June 20, 2005).
  • The Most Important Software Innovations, by David A. Wheeler, (May 25,2005) (concluding that nearly all true innovations in the software field were never patented).
  • Sequential Innovation, Patents, and Imitation, [PDF] by James Bessen and Eric Maskin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Economics Department working paper (January 2000) (concluding that software patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare).
  • Art 52 EPC: Interpretation and Revision, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (web page collecting numerous legal papers tracing the patent courts' complete reversal of the European Patent Convention's provision prohibiting software patents.
  • Software Patent News, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure worldwide software patent news roundup with emphasis on Europe (updated daily; RSS feeds in several European languages).
  • GrokLaw - Patent Stories in the News, Groklaw worldwide patent news roundup with emphasis on North America (updated weekly; RSS feed in English available).

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About FOSS and Patents

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Also see the MS Litigation page here on GrokLaw

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MetaLink Collections

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Chronological list of GrokLaw articles that refer to patents

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July 2005 - December 2005:

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