November 18, 2010

Is software too abstract to be patented? | opensource.com

Is software too abstract to be patented? | opensource.com:
"The serious problem of proliferating bad software patents was not solved by the Supreme Court's Bilski decision, but now it's looking like it may be part of the solution. The early case law applying Bilski is much more encouraging than expected. The new Bilski test focuses on whether an application attempts to patent “an abstract idea.” That new test has already been applied to reject applications for quite a few bad software patents, and with more lawsuits, it could invalidate a lot more. To advance on this, we need to figure out out better ways to explain what software is and show when it is an unpatentable abstract idea."