[Patents] Dutch MP's demand triviality criteria in the law before allowing SW pats

[Francois PELLEGRINI francois.pellegrini@labri.u-bordeaux.fr]

        Hello all,      

Ram'on Garc'ia Fern'andez wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 12:53:04PM +0100, Luuk van Dijk wrote:
> > Ram'on Garc'ia Fern'andez wrote:
> >
> > > Another topic: did you consider the exclusion of patents on interfaces?
> > > These patents hurt interoperability.
> >
> > They were not explicitly discussed.  I take it
> > that interfaces are as 'software' and 'representation
> > of information' as it can get. Not?
> >
> > Luuk
> >
> 
> Making clearer in the law the exclusion of interfaces cannot hurt.
> The clearer the better.
> 
> On the other hand, an interface can be new. For example, a new
> instruction in a processor.  Yet in this cases, the monopolistic
> effects are more important that the need to encourage innovation. It
> is not posible to sell a processor/operating system if there are no
> applications available for it; therefore a processor needs to be
> compatible with existing popular processors in order to succeed.

        Nope.

        Recent events with Intel patenting the instruction set of
its new Itanium family is a clear example. In a market that does
no longer expand as it did, Intel has trouble with its competitors,
that do not stay on the low-cost low-margin market, but attack it
on its high-end market.
        For performance reasons, the 80x86 family must be abandoned,
as its CISC paradigm is a severe performance impediment (complexifies
pre-fetching, superscalarity, and such...).
        Then, to avoid competitors, Intel has patented the instruction
set of its new processor family:

http://www.bigcharts.com/news/articles.asp?newsid=693306370&orig=charting&time=&symb=INTC&sid=2564&source=htx%5Chttp2_mw

        The idea is clear: Intel, due to its weight, will impose its
processor to the after-PC market, backed by Microsoft which will
quickly provide a Windows for it. At the same time, I guess, patents
on smart cards by GemPlus will fall into the public domain, and
licences for Microsoft products will be included in specific smart
cards with un-cyphering capabilities (Microsoft has put much money
in it these years). Then, all previous easily-copyable versions of
Microsoft products will vanish, because they will not be able to run
on the new architecture.
        
        Maybe I should also post this to alt.conspiracy...   8^/



                                        f.p.