Re: [Patents] US patent reform strategy inaugurated by myths & lies

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> I wish to emphasize that this kind of problems occurs on what you call
> "good" patents, that is, hardware-related. It is less frequent than
> SW-oriented ones of course, but patent litigation is a big issue even
> in HW.

We aren't calling any patents good.  We are just promoting the "technical
invention" concept as a workable compromise.

> The infamous interpretation problem as above is everywhere, even with
> your proposal.

When interpretation problems grow to big, sometimes it is better to give
up regulation altogether.

Patent lawyers keep making such problems look bigger than they are,
perhaps until some day people will come and say "since your system
generates such legal insecurity, it is now time to abolish it.  Anyway
most of the patents nowadays relate to areas where this system is
evidently harmful, and, as you guys have always stressed, there is no way
of singling out the areas where it may be useful."

> Problem: a rigourous definition of what is hardware and software,
> and the fact that the border is blurring.
> Example: CPUs, FPGA. Nowadays CPUs are plenty of microcode,
> i.e., each asm instruction is decoded in smaller units, that is,
> each
> asm instruction is a microprogram. The translation is done totally
> in HW, but the code is "program". Now, a particular technical
> implementation of microprograms is/should/would be patentable?
> With your definition no, but is full HW indeed.

Right.
EPC 52.2 does not say that hardware is patentable.
It just lists a few examples of non-technical innovation.

> Also FPGAs have
> the same problem: physical devices, but with both HW/SW role.
> So my final consideration is "Keep it easy, make it shorter".
> Because it's a dead end riddled with an enourmous list of
> exceptions/
> rules, counter rules, that is with no end, and thus useless.

I don't see any lack of clarity in the technical invention concept.
But if patent advocates want to go on denigrating this concept, on
which the future existence of their system depends, they do so at
their own peril.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/