[Fsfe-ie] US Congress to Overhaul Patent Law
Ciaran O'Riordan
ciaran at fsfe.org
Tue Aug 23 13:25:39 CEST 2005
Malcolm Tyrrell <malcoh0l at yahoo.ie> writes:
> "One wholly new measure already in use abroad is post-grant opposition
> proceedings to keep contested cases before administrative law judges
> and out of federal district court."
This sounds like the stunt we're expecting in the Community Patent
directive:
If software patents go to court in the EU, the patent holder is likely to
lose their patent. If the pro-software-patent camp can't get legislation
changed, they need a different way to give validity to their patents.
Enter the Patent Appeals SuperBoard. Such would be filled with experienced
experts (i.e. ex-EPO staffers), so it's verdicts would surely just backup
the doings of the EPO. This would make real (court-based) patent appeals
more difficult ("Aw, c'mon, the SuperMegaBoard said I could have this").
--
Ciarán O'Riordan, | Support FSFE's work against
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/ | software patents by becoming
| a Fellow: http://fsfe.org
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