Re: [Patents] newsscan: Software patent limits 'go too far'

[Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron@free.fr>]

Sure, just the french intellectual property code, article L-611-10 : 

First principle : 

1. Inventions which are susceptible of industrial application, which are
new and which involve an inventive step shall be patentable.

Exception to the first principle : some things can't be seen as
inventions...

2. The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions
within the meaning of paragraph 1 of this Article:

c)... programs for computers;

So programs for computers are not inventions and thus, they can't be
patented. But, there is an exception to the exception, 

3. The provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article shall exclude
patentability of the subject matter or activities referred to in that
provision only to the extent to which a patent application or patent
relates to such subject matter or activities as such (3. Les
dispositions du 2 du présent article n'excluent la brevetabilité des élé
ments énumérés auxdites dispositions que dans la mesure où la demande de
brevet ou le brevet ne concerne que l'un de ces éléments considéré en
tant que tel).

Which means that, even if a program for computer cannot not patented as
such, an invention involving a software can still be patented. 

It's an exception. It was probably meant to be a narrow exception but it
became wider and wider until some people realized that the principle had
made a complete U-turn.

To my point of view, the new text is clearer than this one but it's not
yet clear enough. 

voila...

Jean-Baptiste Soufron
CNRS - CERSA Paris 2
http://soufron.free.fr

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 17:42:40 -0400
Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> wrote:

> 
> Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> > 
> > Software is not patentable but there are exceptions.
> 
> 
> Can you point me to a law that says so?
> 
> Seth
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> DRM is Theft!  We are the Stakeholders!
> 
> New Yorkers for Fair Use
> http://www.nyfairuse.org
> 
> [CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc
> 
> I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or distribution
> of this incidentally recorded communication.  Original authorship
> should be attributed reasonably, but only so far as such an
> expectation might hold for usual practice in ordinary social discourse
> to which one holds no claim of exclusive rights.
> 
> 
>