Software patents are crumbling in USA

Timothy Lee has written an article on the Vox blog about how US court rulings are now invalidating a whole class of software patents.

"These rulings might seem like common sense, but it's important to remember that every single one of these patents was examined and approved [...] because until recently, this kind of "invention" was considered eligible for patent protection. The patent office has issued hundreds of thousands of software patents over the last two decades, and many of them look like this.

"But now the courts are sending a pretty clear message: you can't take a commonplace human activity, do it with a computer, and call that a patentable invention."

Vox