Patent Office Changing With The Times

from the a-bit-late,-but-still-better-than-nothing dept

Apparently, the patent office has finally realized that they've been approving a ton of ridiculous patents, and are working on fixing their own process. They say that fewer and fewer patents are being approved these days. The head of the patent office is even quoted as saying, "it is hurting technology. It is hurting our economy." He also points out that most of the ridiculous patents people complain about were granted a few years ago, suggesting that the patent office may have already started improving its process for weeding out silly patents. I actually don't think that's true. The famous case of the patent for swinging on a swing was just awarded a few months ago.
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  • identicon
    Phillip, 17 Oct 2002 @ 4:27am

    EU

    Talking about patenting software (where many silly patents lie), not only has the UK decided against software being patentable but the new EU Directive also states that software isn't patentable (hence making this law in every EU country). It goes further and says that all current software patents in all EU countries will have to be revoked.

    Phillip.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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