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The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

blogs.forbes.com

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Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#31

Post by binarybits »

chc wrote: post #27
dantheman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not allowed to patent math; software is math; hence software is not patentable.

As much as I'd like it to be true, I can't help but find this line of reasoning a bit specious. As Simon Peyton-Jones is fond of pointing out with regards to Haskell's functional purity, a program that is just pure math won't do anything except make your computer heat up. Math doesn't write files, it doesn't draw on a screen, it doesn't send packets across a network. Am I wrong somewhere in there?

No, a computer does that. You can patent a computer, you just can't patent the software it runs. Just as you can patent a CD player but you can't patent the music it plays.

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#32

Post by doctoboggan »

>Only if this fact becomes common knowledge, in the way that everyone knows doctors hate malpractice lawsuits, will we have any hope of the Supreme Court—and specifically Justice Scalia—doing the right thing.

Yet we still seems to have malpractice lawsuits all the time.

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#34

Post by anigbrowl »

timsally wrote: post #17

It's not up to Justice Scalia to do the right thing. It's up to Congress. As Scalia is so fond of saying, garbage law in, garbage decision out. Just because Congress is incompetent doesn't mean we should put it on SCOTUS to fix our problems for us. I'll preempt the constitutional argument by saying that hasn't been made yet. You underestimate how strong such an argument has to be to succeed. What SCOTUS could clarify…

You underestimate how strong such an argument has to be to succeed.

I wish I could upvote this wise advice ten times. even if patents made it to the top of the Supreme Court docket today and they justices interrupted their summer holidays tomorrow to consider the issue, a badly-thought-out case could just as easily end up extending patent terms to the 95 years that copyrights enjoy.

Unfortunately, a great deal of legal and political debate in the US currently looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo3uxqwTxk0

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#36

Post by reverend_gonzo »

sedev wrote: post #19
andreyf wrote: post #2

That would be nice, but I think that when there are big companies and billions of dollars at stake, things aren't so easy.

That's the whole point of the article: the SCOTUS members don't have to be re-elected and are not going to be lobbyists after leaving the bench - they actually can do such a thing on principle, that's their whole role. Please read the article.

However, that's not their job. The supreme Court's job is to make a decision based on the laws set on the books. They can't say, "Well, this version of the law would be better, so we'll go with that, but rather "Thus is what he law says".

We need to educate Congress. Better yet, we need educated people in Congress.

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#37

Post by ohyes »

pg_bot wrote: post #14

A simpler solution would involve giving the defendant of patent litigation the option of making their suit winner takes all.(All of the court fees within reason are paid by the loser) This would keep software patents but reduce frivolous lawsuits.

And make it impossible for the little guy to, for example, sue Microsoft due to the potential huge legal fees.

The issue here is that patents are being used for extortion, and none of these cases ever end up going to court.

Maybe what would fix this would be to not allow private entities to pursue patent infringement cases with their own lawyers. Create a Bureau of patent infringement.

Make it so that when a patent is infringed, you file a claim with the Bureau, and they asses validity of patent and assign damages. No litigation, no settlement, no patent lawyers involved.

Perhaps we can defeat bureaucratic inefficiency with more bureaucratic inefficiency.

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#38

Post by alecbenzer »

dantheman wrote: post #9
tsotha wrote: post #3

Software patents are a policy issue, not a constitutional question. This needs to get fixed in Congress.

You are not allowed to patent math; software is math; hence software is not patentable.

I was sort of surprised at that logic. Aren't mathematical algorithms sort of different than software, especially in the context of what people are patenting? Like take the Angry Birds suit - the patent in question covers something about the way new level purchased, right? There is no one specific algorithm associated with that idea. Obviously, one needs to be implemented to get something working, but that's not what the patent is on. If you want to work on the theoretical level of "software is math", then aren't the patents in question on _classes_ of software, or on the effects of software, more than on the software itself?

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#39

Post by wccrawford »

timsally wrote: post #17

It's not up to Justice Scalia to do the right thing. It's up to Congress. As Scalia is so fond of saying, garbage law in, garbage decision out. Just because Congress is incompetent doesn't mean we should put it on SCOTUS to fix our problems for us. I'll preempt the constitutional argument by saying that hasn't been made yet. You underestimate how strong such an argument has to be to succeed. What SCOTUS could clarify…

"Just because Congress is incompetent doesn't mean we should put it on SCOTUS to fix our problems for us."

Actually, that's exactly how the system works. Check and balances.

Re: The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents

#40

Post by regularfry »

ohyes wrote: post #37
pg_bot wrote: post #14

A simpler solution would involve giving the defendant of patent litigation the option of making their suit winner takes all.(All of the court fees within reason are paid by the loser) This would keep software patents but reduce frivolous lawsuits.

And make it impossible for the little guy to, for example, sue Microsoft due to the potential huge legal fees. The issue here is that patents are being used for extortion, and none of these cases ever end up going to court. Maybe what would fix this would be to not allow private entities to pursue patent infringement cases with their own lawyers. Create a Bureau of patent infringement. Make it so that when a patent i…

Regulatory capture is the danger there.
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