UK Takes One More Step Towards Software Patents

from the can-bilski-cross-the-pond? dept

Mon, Oct 13th 2008 6:42pm — Mike Masnick

As we eagerly await the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruling in the Bilski case -- which could greatly cut back on the ability of the US Patent Office to grant software and business model patents, it looks Europe may be moving in the opposite direction. We had earlier reported on a ruling in the UK which said that the UK Patent Office had gone too far in tossing out a Symbian patent application because it was software. Now, a UK appeals court has agreed with the earlier ruling, effectively saying that Symbian can, in fact, patent software in the UK, despite earlier policies that did not allow software patents.

The reasoning behind the ruling is a little odd, as it seems mostly based on aligning UK patent rules with the rest of Europe's. However, that doesn't mean that the ruling actually makes sense or does anything towards promoting innovation (and, plenty of recent studies show quite clearly that software patents appear to do exactly the opposite). This is definitely bad news for the software industry in the UK, which will now find more tollbooths to deal with, and more patent thickets to pick through. Money is going to be wasted going after legal fights, rather than on research, development and actually serving customers.

Filed Under: eu, patents, software patents, uk
Companies: symbian

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2008 @ 7:25pm

It runs faster
Can I patent this ?

gcc -O3 prog prog.c
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Jesse, 13 Oct 2008 @ 7:43pm

So basically the argument is, "Yes, the data shows that this is a bad idea...but everyone else is doing it."
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mike42 (profile), 13 Oct 2008 @ 9:22pm

Sad...
I was really hoping that the UK would hold out and become the example which would show the folly of software patents. Sounds like my hopes will be dashed, and no one will be free of the nasty things.
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Enrico Suarve, 14 Oct 2008 @ 12:37am

It's OK Mike
All the jobs are going to India anyway, we were apparently not in enough debt

I wonder if software patents apply there?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2008 @ 1:30am

Offtopic Rant about GMail
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2008 @ 7:44am

Re: Offtopic Rant about GMail
huh?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2008 @ 5:54pm

Re: Offtopic Rant about GMail
head-on
apply directl;y to forehead
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