[Patents] Konno 1995: The Karmarkar patent and Software -- does math patenting work?

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

Under

        http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/korcu/indexen.html
        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/konno95/

you can find a summary of the Japanese book titled (the jap. equivalent
of) "The Karmarkar patent and Software -- does math patenting work?"
by Prof. KONNO Hiroshi of Tokyo University.  An excellent book of rare
quality. There have also been some remarkable articles on this subject
in Japan, especially in the Operations Research circles in which Konno
is an authority.  I hope to be able to introduce more parts of this
discussion as time passes.

Concerning the Konno book, I summarized:

          In this book which received great public attention in Japan,
          Prof. Konno, a specialist of applied mathematics (operations
          research) from Tokyo University, explains what is behind the
          recent drive to extend the scope of patentability to software
          and mathematics. The book starts from a few fascinating
          examples of real advances in mathematical research, namely
          Narendra Karmarkar's interior point method of linear
          programming. This method was a truly rare achievement of
          ingenuity with great value for large-scale industrial planning.
          If any mathematical achievement could be suitable for
          patenting, then it was this method. The AT&T laboratories did
          receive a patent for this method in 1988. However the Karmarkar
          patent did not create very significant revenues for AT&T while
          causing significant inconvenience to the industry and
          destroying much of the positive interaction cycles that had
          previously characterised the cooperation between linear
          programming research and industry in the US. The AT&T
          Laboratories no longer produced any Nobel Prize winners after
          they became patent-oriented, and Karmarkar himself was isolated
          from the network of mathematic researchers, who soon left him
          lagging far behind. Konno captures the reader with a
          fascinating introduction to linear programming, interwoven with
          a dramatic account of the battles that accompanied the
          Karmarkar patent within the mathematics community and the
          patent system. Konno was on the podium or in the first row
          during the conferences where the drama around Karmarkar, linear
          programming and mathematical patents evolved. Moreover it was
          Konno who filed an opposition to the Karmarkar patent in Japan.
          He shows that the Japanese Ministery of Trade and Industry
          (MITI) pushed the Japanese patent office to bend Japanese
          patent law in an inconsistent direction. Lawyers at the time
          explained that it was not necessary to be consistent but to go
          with the tide, which was inevitably pro software patents. The
          MITI acted under the pressure from these lawyers and from the
          US government. Konno's vivid examples suggest however that
          software patents are not here to stay. They do not correspond
          to any need of the software industry. They have stifled
          innovation and resulted in a massive blood transfer from the
          software industry to the litigation business. They created a
          new market of about 2 billion USD per year for the patent law
          professionals. 'You needn't be named Hercule Poirot to see who
          is the driving force behind all this', Konno remarks. But there
          is hope, because the young generation has not lost sight of the
          problems.

Konno actually wrote the book and filed the opposition because some of
the great American mathematicians to whom he felt himself indebted
asked him to do so.

So let us in turn do our best to not let Konno and his colleagues
down, who put up a brave fight but were less lucky in their time.

Another Japanese author wrote a book called 

        Soshou Boukoku Amerika
        The US -- A country ruined by litigation

If this time the US lawyers don't succeed in exporting their
litigation business to Europe, then their snowball system could crash.
Otherwise Europe will be the latecomer in this game and get the whole
burden without any monopoly advantages.

Even more so than in Japan of 1995, European attorneys who advocate
software patents today are not only parasites of their economy but
also traitors of their nation.

Let them have the litigation, we get the innovation!

It is a pity for the US software companies who didn't deserve that,
but eventually it will be for their benefit, as it will allow them a
quicker way out of the quagmire.

--
Hartmut Pilch
Federation for a Free Information Infrastructure        http://www.ffii.org/  ;
  
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation        http://swpat.ffii.org/
For a software patent free Europe PLEASE SIGN http://petition.eurolinux.org/