[Patents] RE: Patents digest, Vol 1 #365 - 10 msgs

[Gregory Aharonian srctran@world.std.com]

Robert writes:
>That is why Hartmut's proposal is better because it would make a
>"software" patent valid in a single application making it possible
>for others to use it elsewhere thereby promoting progress.

No.  All that Hartmut's proposal does is force someone to fill 
patent applications on each and every single application he can
think of.  Which makes work for lawyers, but contributes nothing
to technology transfer or inventing.  You would have to pass a
rule that says that inventors can only patent one use of their
technology, which is idiotic in the extreme.

And again, your observation applies to non-software technology as well.
For example, people could only get a chemical application for a single
application to one disease.  Others could use it elsewhere "thereby
promoting progress".  Do that, and all of the chemical companies will
attack your proposal quite vigorously.

On the other hand, consider an analog filter circuit.  All I am
interested in is the transfer function for the new filter circuit,
not the endless numbers of signal types I can apply the filter to.
I don't want to see a patent application filled with a long list
of industrial applications of this new filter circuit - I just want
to see the circuit diagram and transfer functions, and could care
less what in the physical/technical world its inputs and outputs
are connected to.  Make the same with a software algorithm,
especially software algorithms that are VHDL coding for filter
circuits that are automatically transformed into both hardware and
software.

But under Hartmut's proposal, neither of these would be patentable
unless I fill up the patent application with lots of physical
world effects and uses.  Something the lawyers will love because
they will have more billable hours, but something that does
nothing to help inventors learn from issued patents or promote
technology transfer.

Hartmut's proposal will do little to cut down on the number of 
issued software patents, and do everything to increase the fees
that lawyers can charge.  

Greg Aharonian