[Patents] Re: [Patents] Re: [Patents] Re: Patents] Answer to requests sent to french Economic

[John Tobey spam@john-edwin-tobey.org]

Jean-Paul Smets <jp@smets.com> wrote:

> Both letters include a very misleading mistake when they talk about
> "removing software from the list of non patentable inventions in article
> 52.2". What 52.2 is about is not software but computer programmes.

Is there some legal basis for your distinction between "software" and
"programs"?  I consider them to be equivalent in this context.
"Program" has specific meanings in various technical contexts, for
example:

    - a collection of interdependent C functions including a main()

    - a DOS or Windows binary executable file

    - any executable file (binary or script)

    - a library routine

    - an application (possibly consisting of several executables and
      data files)

    - an operating system

It is not clear to me which, if any, of these specific meanings is
intended in Article 52.2.  More likely, I think "program" can be taken
to mean simply "piece of software".