Re: [Patents] Technology tool being patented in Europe

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

Hi Greg, could you point to an URL where this PR is found?

> Verum believes that the patent is groundbreaking as it is extremely rare
> for a software methodology to be granted patent protection. Typically
> patent agents regard software as an art form and intellectual property
> protection is limited to copyright. 
 
> Robert Howe, CEO at Verum, said, "The granting of patent protection to
> Verum's Analytical Software Design (ASD) demonstrates that it is not
> simply yet another voodoo methodology, but a credible mathematical
> solution to many of the problems that face architects and designers 
> charged with designing complex software systems." 

Nice that he says that they got their patent for a mathematical solution.
He moreover claims that such patents are not grantable, unless the
solution is so brilliant that the non-patentability rule can be broken.
Which is complete bullshit (the opposite is true: patentability of
mathematical solutions directly results from the erosion of quality
requirements in patent offices, and most of the stuff is nowhere near
brilliant), but nowadays regularly found in press releases on the grant of
software patents to some company.

The company where I found this bullshit the last time was Nuzwerk
http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects/nutzwerk/, a company that later had
its brilliant patent nullified by a competitor in court.

The EPO website stresses that "a patent is not a certificate of technical
excellence", apparently because so many corporate PRs spread 
misinformation about the patent system in this way.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
330,000 votes 2000 firms against software patents    http://noepatents.org/