[Patents] GUI patent war Adobe ./ Macromedia

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

> Whats really suprising is the date the patent was filed..1994 ??

That is the priority date.  It was filed at the EPO in 1995.

> I didn't know the EPO was granting software patents that far back.

Indeed this patent does not contain any claim to a "computer program
product" or "computer program".  All 8 claims refer to "methods".

Back in 1990, the EPO already granted a patent on a theorem proving
method, see EP0403454.  So the lack of technicity in the allegedly
inventive problem solution of this patent should be no surprise.

The commencing signal for large-scale patenting of computation rules was
given in 1986 by the EPO with the Vicom and Sohei decisions.  The 1998
decisions only added a second step.

You might simplify it as

1986: "Righteous actions can receive a blessing even when they are based
       on nothing but stealing."
1998: "Stealing can receive a blessing when it has a further righteous
       effect."

In 1986 the EPO plunged into total inconsistency, which was however still
fairly harmless, because programs didn't infringe.  In 1998 they
diminished the inconsistency but thereby embarked on an open collision
course with the law and with the freedom and copyright property of the
software world.  It seems the EPO's me-too software patent system was
usually lagging only 5 years behind that of the USPTO.

--
Hartmut Pilch                                         http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation      http://swpat.ffii.org/
90000 signatures against software patents       http://www.noepatents.org/