BlackBerry inventor escapes UK patent fees

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Oi US Courts #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 11:18 GMT

Read it and weep

"That is exactly the sort of thing that computers do when programmed. It does not seem to me that that is enough of a technical effect to render the invention patentable," he said.

Hopefully the Federal courts and SCOTUS will heads up and sort the USPTO out finally

UK is Linux friendly :)

David S

Eh? #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 12:14 GMT

Common-sense being applied to software patents? What the...

Oh, *UK* patent law. I see...

Anonymous Coward

Re: Oi US Courts #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 12:14 GMT

Unfortunately for your hopes that SCOTUS will pay attention, America diverged from UK Common Law in 1776.

"American courts rarely follow post-Revolution Commonwealth rulings unless there is no American ruling on the point, the facts and law at issue are nearly identical, and the reasoning is strongly persuasive."

It's got nothing to do with being 'Linux-friendly' (I speak as a kernel hacker too, before the flames start!). It's got everything to do with the essence patents:

Inventive Step

Technical Effect

Not obvious to one skilled in the art

The decision is merely reinforcing these fundamentals. It's saying that just because you can do something with a computer (as a result of programming it), it doesn't mean that it is an inventive step.

Anonymous Coward

"UK is Linux friendly" #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 12:14 GMT

I see that Linux development in the UK puts food on table and pays the increasingly-astronomical mortgage and energy bills. You're saved, yay-you.

I've read it, and I'm weeping: Macrossan, Astron Clinica. Autonomy and now this decision have achieved nothing more than drive an economical wedge between the UK and the rest of Europe (well, the other EPC members, which amounts to a sh1tload more than the EU itself) insofar as software investment and the development of a knowledge economy is concerned. And not in a good way, might I add.

Flame hazard icon, for obvious reasons.

McToo

Linux certainly does.... #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 13:14 GMT

put food on the table and pay the bills... in this part of the UK, at least.

J Davies

"UK is Linux friendly" #

Posted Thursday 6th March 2008 13:14 GMT

GNU/Linux & other FOSS development certainly puts food on my table, pays the mortgage and stops me putting the shareholders food on Microsoft's table.

Steve Roper