[Patents] Patnews on Pierret

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

> my belief that software should be as patentable as hardware

Hardware is not patentable according to European patent law.
Only technical inventions are patentable.
A lot of hardware does not represent a technical invention but
at best some new logical concept, which is not patentable.

Unfortunately a lot of patent experts do not understand this and do not
want to understand it.

I may also add that the distinction between logical and physical problem
solutions belongs not only to the realm of philosophy but also to that of
economics, which is in fact an extension of philosophy, as F. Hayek never
became tired to point out.

The economics of the logical problem solution is very different from that
of the physical one.  Moreover, even the economics of an immaterial
embodiment of a solution (software) is very different from that of a
material embodiment (hardware).  But, as you correctly point out, patent
law does is not all that well equipped to discriminate on the basis of
embodiment.  Discrimintating on the basis of where the solution lies is
much easier to do from the perspective of patent law.  Unfortunately
lawcourts like the CAFC have been doing a lousy job on that, and they have
forced patent examiners, many of whom see things more clearly, into a
quagmire of patents on logical ideas and function claims.

--
Hartmut Pilch                                           http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation        http://swpat.ffii.org/
80000 signatures against software patents         http://www.noepatents.org/