[Gllug] Software patents

[Chris Bell]

Hello,
   There is a lot of discussion at the moment about software patents. The
patent system was designed to encourage research and development, and allow
the patent holder to have the first bite of the cherry, until the patent
rights expired, so I thought that anyone trying to obtain a patent on almost
anything had to prove that it was a result of original work, and not
something already in the public domain.
   Anyone could object to a patent application if they could prove that it
was not something new, or already in the public domain, so worries about
commercial companies taking out patents on existing open source projects
should be groundless. It may be less clear if development is progressing
within different groups, where one group could show that they are first to
reach a satisfactory conclusion.
   There has not been any bar against patenting something which does not
work as intended, but the patent can then be ineffective against claims from
other groups who produce something that works better.
   I understand that it is rather different in USA because patent offices
receive a large payment for each patent granted, and do not examine claims
very closely, leaving battles over patent ownership to the courts so that
the only winners are in the legal profession.
   I understand that there has been a battle between IBM and SCO Unix.
   Many patents for the special video effects which are now commonplace are
owned by Quantel, they did a lot of development work when almost everything
was done in expensive hardware, and had a policy of applying for patents to
cover anything they could devise, although they seem to claim that their
patents cover the effects themselves and not the means to generate them.
This means that they are happy to claim infringement of patent rights if
someone tries to produce a similar effect using look-up tables, or software
using clever mathematics.

-- 
Chris Bell



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