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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Software Patents Roundup: Ambush, Reform, and Lobby

By Roy Schestowitz A summary of news about patents with particular focus on software patents and FOSS.

More at Gadgets Giz...

How do professional developers deal with software patents?

Summary: What is the impact of software patents on a developer's plans to ... I have a set of my own PHP scripts ... his clients on that level. ...

More at Derkeiler...

Bill Gates Ridicules the GPL While Novell Mops Up with Software ...

Novell role in helping Microsoft made more apparent as Microsoft's portfolio gets discussed, Gates reveals anti-GPL sentiments.

More at Mobile Ratty ...

oyun on Questioning Steve Ballmer: What, you mean he didn't say "a ...

oyun on Questioning Steve Ballmer:. What, you mean he didn't say "a software patent is a cancer, that attaches itself, in an intellectual property sense, to anything it touches"????

More at Simon Willison ...

Industry Committee study on Science and Technology is underway

In other words, the only way I could access the audio from this parliamentary committee is to potentially infringe software patents. ...

More at IT World Canada Blogs ...

How do professional developers deal with software ...

What is the impact of software patents on a developers plans to market, or even use, his/her work I have a set of my own PHP scripts that I want to use for building my clients sites, but I am not sure if any of the routines violate ...

More at 1 Script...

Virtualization - Patent Reform Bill Stuck in Committee

The patent reform legislation that companies like Microsoft, Intel, Oracle and Cisco were hoping would reduce litigation and improve patent quality hit a ...

More at SYS-CON Media ...

Legal injunction bars Dish Network from selling 4 models of DVRs

A little over a week ago, an appeals court determined that Dish Network (formerly Echostar Communications) had indeed violated a software patent held by ...

More at CNET Blogs ...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Legal injunction bars Dish Network from selling 4 models of DVRs

By Erica Ogg

A little over a week ago, an appeals court determined that Dish Network (formerly Echostar Communications) had indeed violated a software patent held by TiVo on digital video recorders. (Credit: CNET Networks) ...

More at CNET...

A Soft Introduction to Software Patents

By BRRayve@aol.com (Brian R. Rayve)

Software patents have a very recent history as the first software patent granted was in 1981, in the legal case of Diamond v. Diehr. The claimed invention is a heat treatment of rubber, wherein software code is employed to compute the ...

More at InventionPatenting.com ...

Software Patents and Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS ...

Software patent issues specific to FLOSS : While it is important to differentiate software from other subject matter, we also need to ask just how different FLOSS is from non-FLOSS when it comes to patents. ...

More at IT World Canada Blogs ...

Software Patents: Follow The Leader

By Rowan Wilson

Red Hat argues that its stock-in-trade contributes greatly to the American economy but has achieved its current level of success despite a background of uncertainty over potential software patent ...

More at OSS Watch team blog ...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Out of Beta: Argunet 1.0.0 released!

By cvoigt You will reconstruct a small debate about software patents. You can take a look at the final state of this example debate at the Argunet Server of the FU Berlin. Just login and open the debate "Software Patents" with the reader password ...

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Worse Than a Licence to Kill: Licence to Practise Mathematics

By Roy Schestowitz A look at the latest situation regarding software patents and Europe.

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IP, RAND, Standards, OSP, ISP - the conversation continues=85

People are confusing whether or not there is legal recognition of software patents with the reach of something like the OSP. Those are different concepts and worth separating in your thinking. Should standards organisations change their policies ...

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

GPL Project Watch List for Week of 04/18

By Antony Tran ... around the GPL v3 when it was released, concerning its requirements, the LGPL v3 may be better for those who are looking for a little more licensing freedom, while retaining the protection against software patents of the GPL v3. ...

More from Palamida...

Panelists mix it up at ReMIX08

By Brian Finnerty.

In particular, I thought Anil Dash from Six Apart and Jeff Attwood of Coding Horror fame had much to say about what defines open source development, community participation, and the messy tangle of software patents and copyright limits. ...

More from Inner Workings...

Dual-licensing with patents: It's bound to happen

It would be very easy to do as Novell did: Enter into an agreement to make a version of one's software "safe" from patents. It makes Microsoft happy. Presumably it makes one's users happy ("I'm safe from...my vendor and its partners?!").

But it doesn't fix the downstream problem, and it doesn't fix the broken software patent problem. It trades off FUD to make a sale. Myopic and ultimately damaging to one's customers, one's peers, and oneself. This isn't even remotely ...

More at CNET...

Friday, April 18, 2008

O'Reilly Says "Publishers Beware"

By Maya Reynolds

O'Reilly invited readers to join him in urging Amazon to "clarify your intentions with regard to software patents, and avoid any attempts to limit the further development of internet commerce on the basis of the patents you have already ...

More from Maya Reynolds ...

By Steven Hodson

Closely-watched case may spell trouble for software patents :: Ars Technica - this is a slightly older story on FriendFeed that came back to the surface today and it was a comment by Chris White that caught my eye - Wow, ...

More at From the Pipeline ...

Brief History of Software Patents

By timm

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for disclosure of an invention.

  • 1970s and Before: No Software Patents
  • 1980s: Software Patentable as Part of Process/Machine
  • 1990s: Software Patentable
  • Today: Anything Goes

The patent enables the inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing the invention.

More at Dev Topics ...

The Scramble for Software Patents

By Brian R. Rayve

Have you come up with an idea, or an innovative process, or developed a neat little prototype around it? Are you totally excited about it and want to release it in the market and test it out? Hold on a bit, because you need to first protect your intellectual property.

More at InventionPatenting.com ...

Open standards section on fsfeurope.org

There's now an open standards project section on the fsfeurope.org website. Comments welcome there too (that is, unless you're going to say the formatting of the software patents leaflet is horrible . -- Ciar&#E1n O'Riordan, Support free software: Join FSFE's Fellowship.

More at fsfe.org ...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Confusion reigns on software patents

A row is brewing over the lack of consistency surrounding the protection of software rights, and it needs to be resolved if the UK is to stay in step with European law, say experts.

Last month a High Court judge upheld an appeal from software firm Symbian following the rejection of a patent application it made to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) ­ – an application that had already been approved by the European Patent Office (EPO).

Under UK law, patents can only be issued for inventions using software as part of their operations, not for software that affects the running of computers.

Any changes to the handling of software patents is likely to come gradually, said Kim Walker, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons. ...

More at Computing ...

Rules need a re-write, say IP experts at forum

The rules of the road in intellectual property need a re-write, according to speakers at the Intellectual Property Symposium [...] GPL version 3 license has fuelled fears among large corporations who say some of its provisions could put many of their software patents in jeopardy. ...

More at EETimes.com ...

More Open XML Discussion - more misunderstandings about standards ...

By jasonmatusow

The reason I agree with the statement about patents and Free Software not mixing is that there have been terms written into GPL licenses that explicitly conflict with software patents. Okay, that is the choice of the authors and users ...

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Linux Integrators - Not getting it

Analysis on Microsoft's OOXML patent pledge from a software developers and open source viewpoint

I started trying to understand the situation and came across Microsoft's Open Source Patent Pledge which only offers individual protection when you write software but not users of that software. I was later pointed to Microsoft's Open Specification Promise and some legal analysis of it. The analysis is well written and explains that a key issue is the language "any implementation to the extent it conforms to a Covered Specification". Which means if you have bugs or partial implementations you can run afoul. Since open source development means immediate distribution of partial and sometimes alpha-ish implementations, POI will most certainly not be covered by this promise. Moreover, users which use snapshot releases most likely won't be covered

More at Linux Integrators...

New drives from Magnetek

Magnetek Material Handling has introduced several drive software choices that can maximise the performance of its Impulse variable frequency drives, ... they hold several US Patents for the various software versions that can be embedded in the IMPULSE VG+ Series 3 Drive platform.

More at Hoist ...

How To Copyright And Patent Your Software

By georgiaavenue3463

Of course, if this is not enough fun for you, you can try to deal with the red tape involved in dealing with multiple governments to resolve any issues or disputes that may have arisen from your software patents. ...

Thai-Z.com...

Aristocrat case raises requirements

Aristocrat case raises requirements for means-plus-function ...

The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Aristocrat Technologies will require software patent drafters to take more care to describe algorithms covered by their software - or risk patent invalidity.

More at CNET News.com ...

CLUE's involvement in Internet issues: ICANN, Net Neutrality and ...

While I spoke at IT360 last week on the issue of Software Patents and Free/Libre and Open Source Software, recent interviews and blogging have been focused on the related issues of "Net Neutrality" and competitive access to ...

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We Own Those Equations

By mspence@suddenlink.net(mspence@suddenlink.net) If that sounds familiar, you'll note that it's the same thing that many patent holders are doing to turn math into patents using software patents. So, rather than just doing it and having to deal with patent infringement lawsuit, ...

By Hal_10000 If that sounds familiar, you'll note that it's the same thing that many patent holders are doing to turn math into patents using software patents. So, rather than just doing it and having to deal with patent infringement lawsuit, ...

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Ending Software Patents - Talking with Ben Klemens

By barton808 Well Ben Klemens, tasked with leading the Free Software Foundation's End Software Patents campaign, is just such an individual (the point? Kermit lied. There aren't so many songs about rainbows). I was able to grab Ben after his talk at ...

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Why I post censorship workarounds

By admin ...

SSD dynabook SS RX1 notebook, according to Japanese news services. Should software patents have shorter life spans than other patents?-Does the standard 20 years from the date of filing patent lifespan make sense for software patents?

Gafno...

Freedom gets messy

By lindseyberry Linux-Watch published an article last week about Red Hat and ESP (End Software Patents), a Free Software Foundation project, which is challenging the legal logic used for software patents. It makes sense where open source fans are coming from in wanting to change the way software patents are done.

Saucy Sourcing...

Abstract Ideas Can't Be Patented. Or Can They?

By Timothy B. Lee I've written before about the problems created by software patents. Software is is ultimately just a sequence of mathematical formulas, and in their pure form they're not patentable. But in a series of decisions in the 1990s, ...

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Open Sauce Software

We've been watching the controversy over software patents for a long while. They've caused endless trouble in the US (think Microsoft and its efforts to cow ...

More at ZDNet UK ...

Monday, April 14, 2008

Red Hat stands up against software patents

By mailroomuk@zdnet.com (P) It's refreshing to see a big player in the software game make a stand for improving the rules, instead of just playing by them. We've been watching the controversy over software patents for a long while. They've caused endless trouble ...

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Free Software Foundation's First European Licensing & Legal Workshop

By Alex ... open source (FOSS) is a movement with a degree of politics to it, with factions taking different positions on issues such as what materials should be caught by FOSS licences and if/how software patents should be dealt with . ...

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Red Hat and Software Patents (Video)

By Roy Schestowitz Two seniors from Red Hat and their views on Red Hat's patents.

Gadgets Giz...

NODUS - Software patents

By Jordan

More at Jeremy Reed (Hogarth Chambers) ...

Patents

... whether or not software patents are "good" or "evil" has already been hashed over a number of times here and on other forums. And in our case we are considering a piece of hardware also so it is not a pure software patent scenario. ...

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The Penguin Has Entered the Building: The Commercialization of ...

By Fosfuri, A., Giarratana, M. S., Luzzi, A. We find three robust results: (a) firms with large stocks of software patents are more likely to release OSS products; (b) firms with large stocks of software trademarks are less likely to release OSS products; (c) firms with large ...

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Richard Stallman interviewed by Michael Reilly in the New Scientist

By sschmoller "He has been the GNU project's leader ever since and has "dedicated his life to advocating the use of free software and campaigning against software patents and restrictive copyright laws". I was luck enough hear Stallman in Sheffield ...

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Software Patents - League for Programming Freedom

Browse through the net discussions or read some of the software patent papers to hear what LPF members have to say about software patents. ...

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Free/Open-source Multimedia File Formats

By jun auza Speex is an Open Source/Free Software patent-free audio compression format designed for speech. The Speex Project aims to lower the barrier of entry for voice applications by providing a free alternative to expensive proprietary speech ...

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TiVo Patent Victory Over Dish Network Upheld

Thomas Hawk writes "An appeals court today shot down Dish Network's last chance to avoid a multi-million lawsuit verdict won by TiVo over their time ...

More at Slashdot ...

A message for Warez d00dz Culture

By arnuld They are not sharing movies/music alone, they are sharing software-patents alongwith movie/music. When you rip your HD-DVD in H264 format, you give the burden of that software-patent to your friend too. ...

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"Foundations of Open" Australia 2020 local summit

By Brianna Laugher(Brianna Laugher)

More at Removing "structural impediments" (DMCA, software patents, trade secrets, "chilling effect" of lawsuits) to adoption of free software. Alan Smart, ASIBA ...

Comment on Why do we need another OS? by Michael Shadle (Intel)

By Michael Shadle (Intel) On, and while I'm on my soapbox: it's also disappointing about the different licensing out there... it's like the open source version of software patent s to me, sometimes stifling some interoperability and innovations...

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Saturday, April 12, 2008

links for 2008-04-12

By linker Satellite to be junked because lunar flyby is patented. s/basic phyics/logic/ and you have a case for getting rid of software patents. (tags: youcantpatentnature patent)

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Challenge to legal ruling on software patents

The boundary to what can be patented has been effectively abolished by recent Federal Circuit rulings, according to End Software Patents (ESP), ...

More at HEXUS.tv ...

Should software patents have shorter life spans than other patents?

Should software patents have shorter life spans than other patents?

CNET Blogs - Cupertino,CA,USA One major argument against software patents is, that in order to maintain the lightning pace of software innovation, developers must to be free to use ...

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Telegraphics - Free plugins for Photoshop & Illustrator...and ...

Telegraphics - Free plugins for Photoshop & Illustrator...and ...

By Jello No Software Patents! Free and Open Source software is only possible in a world free of software patents. ICO (Windows Icon) Format An easy way to create your web site's favourites/shortcut/bookmark icon in Photoshop (all versions ...

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What if Microsoft, Google, Corel and others had their patents voided?

By admin The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a case that could lead to the abolition of software patents. The case in question concerns a patent submission for "managing the consumption risk costs of a commodity", whatever that ...

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TECH.BLORGE.com - Sydney,Australia By Susan Wilson The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a case that could lead to the abolition of software patents. The case in question concerns ...

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The patent system is broken: reader comment from The_Decider

The patent system is broken: reader comment from The_Decider

CNET Blogs - Cupertino,CA,USA So many software patents are prior art, obvious and trivial. All it does is stifle innovation. How much more do they want the system tilted to favor them ...

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Dish Plans US Supreme Court Appeal In TiVo Patent Case

Multichannel News - New York,NY,USA The federal appeals court in January upheld a lower court's ruling that Dish violated TiVo's "Time Warp" software patent and affirmed the judgment against ...

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An Introduction to EU Council Decision Making

An Introduction to EU Council Decision Making

By admin Google Videos 04.10.2006 A summary of the EU Council of Ministers meeting of 18 May 2004 where the (now rejected) software patents directive was discussed. The ... all >> European Parliament heavily amended the original Commission proposal ...

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Now Hear This - We're Putting an End to Software Patents

Now Hear This - We're Putting an End to Software Patents

By Calvin Ayre In a historical move by End Software Patents (ESP), the US patent system wil= l finally have its day in court to explain how it has allowed opportunistic = trolls to bilk money from the US economy. (To learn more on this rehearing, = ...

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Patent Madness

By anileklavya =E2=80=98Patent Nonsense=E2=80=98 by George Monbiot; =E2=80=98What are softw= are patents good for?=E2=80=98 by Z. Wagner; =E2=80=98Patent absurdity=E2=80= =98 by Richard Stallman; =E2=80=98SOFTWARE PATENTS: AN INDUSTRY AT RISK=E2= =80=98 by The League for Programming Freedom; Patented European webshop ...

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The Case For And Against Software And Business Model Patents

The Case For And Against Software And Business Model Patents

However, just as I'm working on finishing that up, the various friend of the court briefs on the Bilski case were due, which is a perfect opportunity to discuss the question of business model and software patents. ...

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The Case For And Against Software And Business Model Patents

Techdirt - USA Red Hat (expectedly) explained how software patents harm open source development (and how open source shows that patents aren't necessary for software ...

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Open source launches attack on software patents

Open source launches attack on software patents

By Linux.com Admin(Linux.com Admin) Red Hat and ESP (End Software Patents), a Free Software Foundation project, are joining others in challenging the legal logic used for software patents.

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Software patent litigation worth watching

Software patent litigation worth watching

By Edit Staff One of the big threats to open-source software is patents; it's becoming increasingly impossible to create software without violating one. A case currently in front of the United States Court of Appeals, In re Bilski, offers some hope ...

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Open source news roundup

Open source news roundup

Tectonic - South Africa Open Road Red Hat and End Software Patents, a Free Software Foundation project, are joining others in challenging the legal logic used for software patents. ...

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End Software Patents Update

End Software Patents Update

By Stephen Spector For those of you who love legal discussions and believe that Software Patents should be dissolved, here is some information I received today. NOTE - My posting of this information does not imply my agreement with nor disagreement with ...

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Open source launches attack on software patents

Red Hat and ESP (End Software Patents), a Free Software Foundation project, are joining others in challenging the legal logic used for software patents.

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The End of Software Patents

By mike Therefore, software patent reform is a high priority for us. Even though we are based primarily on in-house software and OpenSource software, we are not immune to software patents. In my opinion, software patents are akin to patenting ...

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RedHat Seeks Limits on Software Patents

By Slashdot.org eldavojohn writes "RedHat went to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals asking for limits on software patents yesterday. They have not uploaded their full brief yet online, but promise to post it soon. Here's a tidbit: 'Given the ...

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An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its ...

An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its ...

By can.axis "End Software Patents (ESP) has filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) rehearing of the In re Bilski case. The rehearing could lead to the elimination of patents on software. read more.

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Software patents could be killed off for good

Software patents could be killed off for good

Inquirer - Harrow,England,UK In an ironic twist, it's even reported that the Federal Circuit's own web site could be produced on software patent infringing software. ...

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Closely-watched case may spell trouble for software patents

Ars Technica - Boston,MA,USA Ars covered the launch of the End Software Patents Project back in February. Like the EFF brief, the ESP brief argues that the key Supreme Court precedents ...

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Chance to kill software patents opens

Chance to kill software patents opens

By Cory Doctorow End Software Patents (ESP) and the Free Software Foundation have filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) rehearing of the In re Bilski case set for May 8, 2008. The rehearing could lead to ...

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An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its ...

By jake End Software Patents (ESP) has sent out a press release about their amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief filed in a patent case which they believe could effectively stop software patents in the US. "ESP executive director Ben ...

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Closely-watched case may spell trouble for software patents

The ACLU, EFF, and the End Software Patents Project have all filed amicus briefs in the In Re Bilksi patent case, urging a federal court to rein in the patenting of abstract ideas. The case, which will be argued next month, ...

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News: An opportunity to End Software Patents

Up until recent there's been a lot of talk about various efforts to reduce or limit software patents for the betterment of everyone. Now it seems that another group has got a step further and created a legal situation that might once ...

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its ...

An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its ...

By dcp BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- April 8, 2008 -- End Software Patents (ESP) has filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) rehearing of the In re Bilski case. read more.

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On Marriage Patents, Software Patents and Thought Patents

On Marriage Patents, Software Patents and Thought Patents

"Pay-to-think schemes, eh? Where does one pay the toll?"

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Red Hat Says US Patent System Is Broken

This week Red Hat filed with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to carefully examine the state of software patents in the country. According to Red Hat, a company ripe with support for open source software, software patents are being ...

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Terrain of knowledge economy is one where tensions will surely rise

Terrain of knowledge economy is one where tensions will surely rise

Business Report - Johannesburg,South Africa The flashpoints of conflict have been particularly marked around the development and adoption of open standards and growing concerns about software patents. ...

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Microsoft Bullies Over Software Patents, Takes a Hit Also

Microsoft Bullies Over Software Patents, Takes a Hit Also

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in bribery, extortion, blackmail and customer abuse.

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Red Hat Asks Federal Court To Limit Patents On Software

Red Hat Asks Federal Court To Limit Patents On Software
By Rob Tiller, Vice President and Assistant... ... written in good faith could be deemed to infringe an existing software patent. It's impossible to rule out this possibility, because there are now more than 200000 software patents, and those patents cannot be efficiently searched. ...
By T. Colin Dodd Software patents were barely recognized when open source began, and so the hope of obtaining a patent did not motivate the first developers. Those pioneers were generally opposed to software patents. The open, collaborative activity at ...
Hard OCP - Plano,TX,USA Developers face the risk that the original code they have written in good faith could be deemed to infringe an existing software patent. ...
By admin ... written in good faith could be deemed to infringe an existing software patent. It's impossible to rule out this possibility, because there are now more than 200,000 software patents, and those patents cannot be efficiently searched. ...
It appears that Red Hat Inc. is now working diligently to limit or remove software patents via the federal courts. I think this is a great effort and we support them on their work! Software patents are a blight on the tech industry and ...
Red Hat has filed a friend of the court brief with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals complaining that the patent system is a hindrance to leash on them. ...

Happy Birthday OSS!

Happy Birthday OSS!

By harishpillay(harishpillay) Looking at the Singapore context, our laws do not support not deny support of software patents. But from all my queries with the IPOS, it seems that software patents crept into Singapore via the Singapore-US Free Trade Agreement signed ...

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ACLU enters the software patent debate

ACLU enters the software patent debate

LinuxWorld.com - Montvale,NJ,USA EFF is looking to pick off specific patents, End Software Patents wants to fix the software patent problem for economic reasons, and now ACLU is bringing up ...

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More software patent nonsense - Microsoft Told to Pay Alcatel ...

More software patent nonsense - Microsoft Told to Pay Alcatel ...

By mhanney Always reminds me of Doctor Evil in therapy in the Austin Powers movie where his father claims to have invented the question mark. I hope EU governments continue to throw out all proposals for software patents in Europe. ...

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On Marriage Patents, Software Patents and Thought Patents

On Marriage Patents, Software Patents and Thought Patents

By Roy Schestowitz More outrageous patents that are are filed and Tridgell's fight against software patents.

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Monday, April 07, 2008

Internet, consumer patents rule at auction

Internet, consumer patents rule at auction

By prolink For critics of software patents, this kind of event is the ultimate nightmare. They claim that Internet patents are dangerously broad and that auctions ultimately fuel lawsuits. It's like the Amazon one-click patent and an attack by ...

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Intellectual property protection of marketplace platforms

By jay Protecting innovations through patents is always under scrutiny, and especially software patents. I started looking into "marketplace patents" recently and found a very confused and scattered landscape. Most of the patent applications ...

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Richard M. Stallman: The Dangers of Software Patents

Richard M. Stallman: The Dangers of Software Patents

By Jayyy(Jayyy) Richard M Stallman at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, organised by Irish Free Software Organisation, TCD Netsoc, UCD Netsoc and MiNDS regarding the dangers of software patents. It is a long speech in which Stallman tries to ...

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GPL Project Watch List for the Week of 04/04/08

GPL Project Watch List for the Week of 04/04/08

By Ernest M. Park It appears that protection from software patents was a major motivator for this change to the LGPLv3. The LGPLv3 incorporates almost all of the terms of the GPLv3, which includes strong language that requires contributors to grant a ...

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Microsoft's Software Patents 'Buddy' Faces More Corruption Allegations

Microsoft's Software Patents 'Buddy' Faces More Corruption Allegations

By Roy Schestowitz One of the companies whose products we boycott was caught red-handed and its boss is now being interrogated.

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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Free speech vs. at least one patent (and copyright)

Free speech vs. at least one patent (and copyright)

The ACLU has filed a brief [1] (pdf [2]) in the US patent case called Bilski (a case I understand the End Software Patents [3] project is watching closely) making a free speech argument against the patent in question. ...

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ACLU: abstract patents violates constitution

By vuorio FFII says hi; it's great to see a major civil rights organization to bring this up in the patents sphere. With enough exposure, hopefully the insanity of business and software patents may come to an end some day...

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Letter: Misunderstandings over open-source software harm local IT ...

Letter: Misunderstandings over open-source software harm local IT ...

Business Report - Johannesburg,South Africa The minister also talked about the hazards of software patents, something that is of great concern to the local IT industry. A patent cold war in South ...

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How To Copyright And Patent Your Software

How To Copyright And Patent Your Software

By seijalblog4644 A "software patent" has no universal understanding. In general, owning a patent allows a company certain rights (or exclusivity) for a prescribed amount of time. Individuals or corporations seeking a patent must apply for a patent in ...

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The Three Stomp Signal - Anyone?

The Three Stomp Signal - Anyone?

By Denis Keohane The only other remotely close return was from a software patent: ...protocol in which a stomp signal is propagated to cancel a prior request... I cannot even find where Geoff Millard, who graduated from advancing the slides in a ...

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Alcatel Awarded $367 Million in MS Patent Case

Alcatel Awarded $367 Million in MS Patent Case

Slashdot - USA Software patents ought to be done away with completely. by GordonCopestake (941689) What are the alternatives to stop people stealing your code? ...

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Matthew Small and Clare Respond to Bb patent developments

Matthew Small and Clare Respond to Bb patent developments

By Matt Clare It's very interesting in that it gives insight into his mindset with respect to the patent and he refers frequently to any perceived problem with the patent to be with software patent law itself, not Bb's patent. It'sa good point, ...

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Friday, April 04, 2008

Patent Auction Advice: My Experience at the Ocean Tomo ...

Patent Auction Advice: My Experience at the Ocean Tomo ...

By charles This auction seemed to favor computer hardware and software patents with less interest in materials and power technology. Planning to Buy A Patent? I have three pieces of advice if you plan to buy a patent at auction... ...

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Protect and serve

Protect and serve

By Computing blogs I am disappointed that your story reports that the High Court decision over Symbian's patent application "may benefit UK software makers" (High Court rewrites UK software patent rules). For each software maker that gets a monopoly over ...

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Spring 2008 - a UKUUG Conference Review

By nospam@example.com (Gavin Henry) Software patents and open standards - This was one hour of very interesting, worrying and intelligent discussion. It was good to see so much Catalyst usage too. The rest of the day was spent chatting with Matt and Mike, meeting lots of ...

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Blackboard's patent on the way out

Blackboard's patent on the way out

By Andres Guadamuz(Andres Guadamuz) Blackboard's claim exemplifies everything that is wrong with software patents. Theirs is a patent that should not exist, and if there is any justice in the world, it will be repealed and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it ...

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Patenting in India - Rising, But Not There Yet

Patenting in India - Rising, But Not There Yet

By ashish I did a study 4 years back, and one of the findings was that close to 80% of software patents were filed by MNCs - mostly driven by companies like TI, IBM , HP and Sun etc. Very few Indian companies were into serious IP business (Moser ...

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Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?
By Slash Since then, the company has remained vehemently against software patents. However, now that Sun has purchased MySQL, the company is apparently being pushed to cut back on its anti-software patent stance. Someone who prefers to remain ...

Smith Micro Software Receives Patent Grant for System and Method ...

Smith Micro Software Receives Patent Grant for System and Method ...

Earthtimes - London,UK LAS VEGAS - (Business Wire) Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMSI), a leading developer and marketer of software solutions and services for the wireless ...

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Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

By Michael Masnick Since then, the company has remained vehemently against software patents. However, now that Sun has purchased MySQL, the company is apparently being pushed to cut back on its anti-software patent stance. Someone who prefers to remain ...

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Smith Micro Software Receives Patent Grant for System and Method ...

Smith Micro Software Receives Patent Grant for System and Method ...

Web Services Journal - Montvale,NJ,USA Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMSI), a leading developer and marketer of software solutions and services for the wireless market, today announced it ...

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Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

By admin MySQL's execs have always been outspoken critics of software patents. Back in 2004, we wrote about the company CEO's well-reasoned article about how software patents had become the nuclear stockpiling of the modern era. ...

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Is Sun Backtracking On Software Patents?

By Michael Masnick Since then, the company has remained vehemently against software patents. However, now that Sun has purchased MySQL, the company is apparently being pushed to cut back on its anti-software patent stance. Someone who prefers to remain ...

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Can the software patent process be fixed?

By Atlanta Beauty Seems like its an open question. And especially when the people doing the fixing are the ones that broke it in the first place. Here's the latest attempt at righting the ship and making it more seSeems like its an open question. ...

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Open Source Patent Donations?

Open Source Patent Donations?

Should I patent the ideas and donate them to some sort of open source foundation? Or just blog about the ideas so that the 'prior art' exists in the public domain? What's your strategy for fighting against restrictive software patents?" ...

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Slashdot - USA What's your strategy for fighting against restrictive software patents?" The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. ...

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Highway Safety Agency Silences Engineers

Highway Safety Agency Silences Engineers

By omytardeo Nason, administrator of the NationalQuick updates on software patents. According to an article from rss.slashdot.org, entitled Highway Safety Agency Silences Engineers: nbauman writes "Nichole R. Nason, administrator of the National ...

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A spot of reading

By smbramonatatum The only interesting bit for me was the similarities between the state of gene patents and software patents. The patent system is obviously badly broken. I only wonder when the powers-that-be wake up and realize the damage that is being ...

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Behind In re Bilski: State AG says Bilski's inventions were a raw ...

Behind In re Bilski: State AG says Bilski's inventions were a raw ...

By Joe Mullin The patent case is likely to have a big impact on business method and software patents; the case is being closely watched by the patent bar and has garnered some mainstream press coverage as well. A very different debate over business ...

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South African Minister vs Microsoft on Software Patents

South African Minister vs Microsoft on Software Patents

By Non-Hamster "The South African minister of public service and administration on Monday (3/25/08) addressed the opening of the Idlelo 3 free software conference in Dakar, Senegal, saying that software patents posed a considerable threat to the ...

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Richard Stallman finds love through World of Warcraft

Richard Stallman finds love through World of Warcraft

By os-news So it came as a surprise to many visitors to the GNU home page to see an announcement not asking for a call to arms against software patents or so-called DRM, but to say that he was getting married. What makes the news surprising? ...

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atsec scientists find the ultimate buffer overflow protection

atsec scientists find the ultimate buffer overflow protection

openPR (press release) - Hamburg,Germany (openPR) - Buffer overflow problems have plagued software programmers for at least three decades. While many partial solutions for buffer overflow have been ...

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

MSOSBC, the OSI and Microsoft's Software Patents Demand

MSOSBC, the OSI and Microsoft's Software Patents Demand

By Roy Schestowitz The OSI and others who are involved begin to realise and even admit that something is amiss.

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Week4-Copyright Laws

Week4-Copyright Laws

By KAMILI(KAMILI) This portrait is dominated by a system lawyers and legislators whose sole purpose is to expand the number of software patents, resulting in the present loss of previously unregulated works in the public domain or those subject to fair ...

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Software patents underlie a novel open source business model (video)

By Enzo De Lorenzi "Software patents are evil." Ask almost any free or open source software advocate, and they'll tell you that software patents kill creativity and keep computer science from advancing as rapidly as it would if everyone shared their basic ...

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Understanding Software, Patents, and Open Source: Faculty Lunch at UCLA

Thursday, April 10, from noon to 1:30 pm Kat Fibiger, software creator and new member of the UCLA's Office of Intellectual Property, will lead this lunch session and describe UC policy related to these areas..

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National standards bodies to approve farcical OOXML

One of the big problems with OOXML is the danger of software patents. Microsoft published a promise not to sue people for implementing the OOXML specification, but the promise only covers fully-compliant implementations. ...

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Monday, March 31, 2008

Open Source software and Software Patents working together

Open Source software and Software Patents working together

By Anton "Software patents are evil." Ask almost any free or open source software advocate, and they'll tell you that software patents kill creativity and keep computer science from advancing as rapidly as it would if everyone shared their basic ...

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Software Patents and Death by Patents

By Roy Schestowitz Another summary of stories that demonstrate the crucial need for change patent law.

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Blackboard, Slashdotting, Ignorants and Apologists

Blackboard, Slashdotting, Ignorants and Apologists By apthorpe(apthorpe) Theoretically, the whole notion of software patents is absurd. It is accepted that mathematics may not be patented and software is nothing but mathematical notation. @Ed Garay. I'm glad someone is having an enjoyable experience with ...

Are software patents evil?

Are software patents evil? By ptc In fact, the very argument that "software patents are evil" is incorrect. It doesn't say that "patents are evil"; what is says is that this otherwise working fine system of patents becomes evil when applied specifically to software ... Software patents underlie a novel open source business model (video) By Catarina "Software patents are evil." Ask almost any free or open source software advocate, and they'll you that software patents kill creativity and keep computer science from advancing as rapidly as it would if everyone shared their basic work ... Microsoft's Young Siblings Harness Software Patents By Roy Schestowitz Two companies that are affiliated with Microsoft keep 'busy' on the patent front, USPTO denies problems, even wrt to software patent. Open Source Business Model Using Software Patents By Ryan Adams Joe Barr writes "Robin Miller has an exclusive video interview with Larry Rosen and Fred Popowich this morning on Linux.com about their new open source business model which includes software patents in its DNA. ... What good is a CC licensed specification? By Mike Linksvayer Software patents may be the main legal barrier to such use. This is why patent grants often get the most thorough public vetting of any non-technical aspect of a new specification and why (for example) the debate over the W3C's patent ...