[Patents] natural forces

[John Smith notobvious@hotmail.com]

Since it's getting-at-Hartmut-Pilch time, may I add to Greg's comments one 
of my own: it may have escaped some people that what Hartmut is advocating 
is a return to older German law, and not just for Germany but for the whole 
of Europe.

He advocates a "theory of technicity which demands that the inventive core 
of the solution be situated in the area of directly using natural forces for 
a causal effect". Nobody but a few German lawyers has ever understood what 
this gobbledegook means.

I was at a conference last year where even Dr Tauchert, the head of the 
computing group in the DPA, squirmed and tried to rewrite this definition. 
He clearly understood that it was drafted in the days of steam engines and 
was of no relevance today. So why are we being asked to support something 
that nobody understands and which even the DPA is edging away from?

"notobvious"
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