[Patents] Answer to Illegal patents

[Jean-Paul Smets jp@smets.com]

The answer is simple
        1- Patents on programmes as such are illegal (article 52.2c EPC)
        2- Patents on inventions involving software are legal (article 52.3 
EPC)

Point 1 makes sense because a programme as such is scientificaly equivalent
to a mathematical proof which can not be an invention. It would be strange
if under the law, the same object could and could not be an invention
depending on its representation.

The patents you found belong to the second case. What it is important is
that a software publisher can not be sued for patent infringement, but only
for providing components to a user to infringe a patent. This makes the
situation for software publisher less risky (you cannot  sue them unless
you warn them first) than for hardware makers (you can sue them for
infringement without warning them first).

Example
        1- MP3 patents (on a device which can be used to listen to MP3 music)
        2- MP3 programme source code (it is not an invention, and probably 
not a
product)
        3- MP3 executable program (it may be a product but not an invention)

The next question is : can those patents be cancelled
        1- Because they have no industrial application ?
        2- Because of anteriority ?
        3- Because they are concepts or ideas ?

JPS.