Warp wrote:
>> That's the same rules we have here in the USA.
>   Clearly it isn't. Something like patenting LZW would never happen here.

Unfortunately, our courts have been acting for a long time as if a computer 
with a specific program on it *is* a new device. It's only recently that 
they decided that the device has to be "special purpose", and now that's 
going to go thru all the courts again.

In other words, it's the same titular rules (at least in terms of software 
patents), but the lawyers have managed to argue that they mean something 
different. That's why our patents all have wordings like "A method of 
turning X into Y by applying this computerized algorithm."

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that it's best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

Post a reply to this message