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

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

> >In fact, you appear to agree with me that the patenting an instruction
> >set is for avoiding competition. It is not used to protect research.
>
> Patents protect research by preventing competition.  All Intel can get
> a patent on is any new and unobvious features to their instruction set.

It doesn't take much research to think up a "new and unobvious" processor
instruction set.  It is just the daily work of a programmer.  It does
however take a lot of research work to find ways to get more processing
power on less silicon.

This is the chief reason why patents are preventing competition without
fostering any research.

This is also one of the points that the Bessen paper and other papers have
been trying to make.  Prof Bessen and others explained that to you quite
elaborately, but apparently without success.

See my updated list of economics papers at

        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/minra/siskuen.html

For the "obviousness" problem, see

        http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/trili/

Meanwhile, we also have some nice patent samples to look at and verify all
theories of "impossibility of separating logical from physical
innovations."

        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/pikta/txt/

After looking through some of the sample groups (from various epochs of
the EPO practise), I find that

- The criteria are easily applicable.  No gray zone at all.
- Most of even today's patents are about solutions, where the
  causal relation between means and effects is a physical one.
  The illegal software patents constitute only about 10%.
  Assertions that our insistence on technicity would eliminate
  all or most patents are unfounded FUD.
- Those patents where the causal relation between means and effects
  is a logical one are usually trivial and not conducive to fostering
  research.  The others are less trivial, less likely to be
  reinvented by independent inventors, and less painful in their
  use, becaue they only make something cost more money which already
  costs money.  On the other hand, it would be worthwhile to sort out
  a lot of garbage among the physical-causality patents as well.

-phm