Re: [Patents] Wired on Initial Woes of Scientific Socialism

[Erik Josefsson <ehj@cleosan.com>]

Hartmut Pilch wrote:
> At
>
>         http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62930,00.html
>
> you find a report about the transitory difficulties of scientific
> socialism in its initial phase, which will of course soon go away.
> And Wired (!) doesn't even mean it ironically.
>
> At other occasions I heard that we have had swpat for the last 30 years 
> even in Europe.  At least McCarthy, UNICE & Co always say that.

This is also the official position of the Swedish Ministry of Justice 
20040316:
.
"För det första vill jag klargöra att direktivet inte innebär att patent 
 kan sökas på ett nytt område eller att möjligheterna att få patent på 
datorrelaterade uppfinningar utvidgas. I Europa har patent på 
datorrelaterade uppfinningar funnits tillgängligt i ca 30 år och 
hittills har det meddelats omkring 30 000 sådana patent av de europeiska 
patentmyndigheterna."

   http://w1.401.telia.com/~u40120948/Lagutskottet20040318/pontensvar.pdf

Translated:

"First of all I want to make clear that the directive does not mean that 
patents can be applied for in a new area or that the patentability of 
computer implemented inventions is expanded. Patents on computer 
implemented inventions have been available in Europe for 30 years and 
until now about 30 000 such patents have been granted by the european 
patent authorities."

(NB "datorrelaterade uppfinningar" litterally means "computer-related 
inventions". A literal translation of "computer implemented inventions" 
is "datorimplementerade uppfinningar", but that can hardly mean anything 
else than computer programs, even for the layman)

//Erik