Bilski patent decision: trying to return patents to their technological origins

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andy Oram <andyo () oreilly com>
Date: November 10, 2008 6:17:43 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Bilski patent decision: trying to return patents to their  
technological origins

(Summary for IP)

The software industry is abuzz--almost as much as the legal
field--with a October 28 court decision that everyone regards as a
verdict on business patents, and that some think it will change
software patenting as well. I've just published an exploration of the
issue:

 http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/article/patent_bilsky_aftermath.html

The experts are definitely on the case, so what's the value of this
article? I wrote it because I believe that no one has tried to explain
how the Bilski decision changes what is patentable (and what is not)
using concepts that engineers and computer programmers can understand.

I don't want to wait for the experts to stop fighting among themselves
because that will never happen, at least not till more court cases
come up. (The court ruling said so itself.)

I also believe that it's useful to try to reach enlightenment through
a different path. That's why I hope, while accepting my limitations
as an amateur, that this article can help readers understand what has
changed. What I offer here is an inductive exploration based on
hypothetical examples. My approach allows me to make a lot of
comparisons in a very small space and to base principles on relatively
clean examples.

The sections of this article are:

 An example: directing traffic through a graph
 http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/article/patent_bilsky_aftermath.html#example

 About the court decision
 http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/article/patent_bilsky_aftermath.html#about_decision

 What the courts need to do
 http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/article/patent_bilsky_aftermath.html#role_court


--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Oram  O'Reilly Media                     email: andyo () oreilly com
Editor     10 Fawcett Street                       voice: 617-499-7479
          Cambridge, MA 02138-1175                  fax: 617-661-1116
          USA                         http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/
----------------------------------------------------------------------




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com