On 03/03/2014 10:55 AM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
Joinup has a summary from discussion about software patents: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/software-patents-should-incl...
Next week I will be in a panel discussion with the European Patent Office at Cebit, and I am interested in your opinion about the article.
My opinion:
It *might* raise standards if software patents were to include source code and *might* reduce the totally frivolous patent applications, but I think Mirko Boehm's argument misses the point that software should never be patented at all. The argument is the usual, which is actually also the reason why it was traditionally excluded from patentability: Software is *thought*, it's ultimately an expression of abstract mathematical ideas, and you can't patent mathematical ideas.
Furthermore, I disagree with Boehm's statement that: "The most-recent ground-breaking software development was Quicksort. It was invented in 1960."
Maybe in terms of algorithmics, but then there's still the RSA algorithm and a number of other things. But all the Internet protocols (including email and the Web) and graphical user interface paradigms might also be considered some sort of software breakthrough, and they're definitely post 1960. :-)
I thus agree entirely with Carlo Piana's statements near the end of the article.
Best, Carsten