UK High Court Follows Bad US Decision To Allow Software Patents
from the uh-oh dept
It looks like the UK is about to make the same dangerous mistake that US courts made a while back. A decision there has now stated that the Patent Office shouldn't automatically reject patent apps on software. Oddly, the Financial Times report on this only quotes those who seem to think this is a good thing. It quotes some patent attorneys (who, as a rule of thumb, generally want more things to be patentable) claiming this will help small companies better compete. This is actually the opposite of what's happened in the US since the Supreme Court made a similar decision allowing software patents about a decade ago. Since then, the patentability of software has only resulted in the rise of ridiculous patents and lawsuits often preventing small companies from actually being able to innovate. In fact, the US Supreme Court has been trying to back away from software patents recently. Given the vigorous protests against software patents in Europe, you would think that the FT reporter would at least look for an opposing viewpoint, rather than claiming straight up that this decision was a good one.
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by Got Milk on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 4:45pm
"It quotes some patent attorneys...claiming this will help small companies better compete"
In related news dairy farmers say that a gallon of milk a day leads to a more active sex drive....
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by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 5:39pm
Time to buy more milk!
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Re: by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 5:41pm
harrumph but the related excessive flatulence leads to less active sex life
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RE: Got Milk by Brian on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:05pm
And all this time I have been completely misunderstanding what my mom has been telling me about milk making bones grow strong.
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Don't play smart ass, Mikey by angry dude on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:50pm
yeah, why do you think US and UK courts are both stupid ?
Maybe it is you who are stupid ?
And the only reason why Europe failed to pass some unified laws regadring so-called computer-implemented inventions a few yeara back is a bunch of brainwashed young idiots in "No software patents" T-shits runnung in circles around the Parliament and shouting FREEEEDOM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Freedom my ass
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Re: Don't play smart ass, Mikey by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 11:36pm
You really have no life do you ?
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Re: Don't play smart ass, Mikey by Econ 101 on Jan 29th, 2008 @ 5:25am
Because as we all know ...
Monopolies = good
Free Enterprise = bad
AD, stop playing stupid.
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imbeciles by angry dude on Jan 29th, 2008 @ 7:46am
What a bunch of brainless retards here on techdirt !!!!!!!!!
Just venting out
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