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Computer programs, software and
patent law
Topics

Software patent
Debate
Free software
List of patents
Treaties

TRIPS Agreement
Patent Cooperation Treaty
European Patent Convention
Countries

United Kingdom
United States
Case law

European Patent Office
United Kingdom
Related topics

Business methods
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Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. Software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of Opposition to Software patents is widespread in the Free software community. This is a categorized list of notable Patents and Patent applications involving Computer programs often labelled Software patents The patents are listed according The WTO 's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs particularly Article 27 are important elements in the debate on the international legal There are two provisions in the Regulations annexed to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT that relate to the search and examination of Patent applications concerning The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions There are four over-riding requirements for a Patent to be granted under United Kingdom patent law Software or computer programs are not explicitly mentioned in United States patent law. This list provides a guide to decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO relating to. This article lists judgments of the UK Courts relating to excluded subject matter. Business method patents are a class of Patents which disclose and claim new Methods of doing business. [1] One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program". The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a Non-profit organisation based in Munich Germany, dedicated to establishing a free [2][a]

There is intense debate over the extent to which software patents should be granted, if at all. Software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of Important issues concerning software patents include:

Contents

Background

A patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a state to a patent holder for a limited period of time, usually 20 years. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. These rights are granted to patent applicants in exchange for their disclosure of the inventions. Once a patent is granted in a given country, no person may make, use, sell or import/export the claimed invention in that country without the permission of the patent holder. Permission, where granted, is typically in the form of a license which conditions are set by the patent owner: it may be gratis or in return for a royalty payment or lump sum fee. The verb license or grant license means to give permission The noun license is the document demonstrating that permission

Patents are territorial in nature. To obtain a patent, inventors must file patent applications in each and every country in which they want a patent. A patent application is a request pending at a Patent office for the grant of a Patent for the Invention described and claimed by that application For example, separate applications must be filed in Japan, China, the United States and India if the applicant wishes to obtain patents in those countries. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The United States of America —commonly referred to as the India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country However, some regional offices exist, such as the European Patent Office (EPO), which act as supranational bodies with the power to grant patents which can then be brought into effect in the member states, and an international procedure also exists for filing a single international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which can then give rise to patent protection in most countries. The European Patent Office (EPO is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg the other being the Administrative Council. The Patent Cooperation Treaty ( PCT) is an International Patent Law Treaty, concluded in 1970

These different countries and regional offices have different standards for granting patents. This is particularly true of software or computer-implemented inventions, especially where the software is implementing a business method.

History and current trends

Early example of a software patent

On 1962-05-21, a British patent application entitled "A Computer Arranged for the Automatic Solution of Linear Programming Problems" was filed. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 878 - Syracuse Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. In Mathematics, linear programming (LP is a technique for optimization of a Linear Objective function, subject to Linear equality [6] The invention was concerned with efficient memory management for the simplex algorithm, and may be implemented by purely software means. In computer science and applications out-of-core refers to Algorithms which process data that is too large to fit into a computer's Main memory at one time In mathematical optimization theory, the simplex algorithm, created by the American Mathematician George Dantzig in 1947, is a popular The patent was granted on August 17, 1966 and seems to be one of the first software patents. [7]

United States

Growth of software patents in US
Growth of software patents in US
Main article: Software patents under United States patent law

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents that may be referred to as software patents since at least the early 1970s. Software or computer programs are not explicitly mentioned in United States patent law. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues Patents to [8] In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a patent for a process should not be allowed if it would "wholly pre-empt the mathematical formula and in practical effect would be a patent on the algorithm itself", adding that "it is said that the decision precludes a patent for any program servicing a computer. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. We do not so hold. "[9] In 1981, the Supreme Court stated that "a claim drawn to subject matter otherwise statutory does not become nonstatutory simply because it uses a mathematical formula, computer program, or digital computer" and a claim is patentable if is contains "a mathematical formula [and] implements or applies the formula in a structure or process which, when considered as a whole, is performing a function which the patent laws were designed to protect". [10]

Due to different treatment of federal patent rights in different parts of the country, in 1982 the U. S. Congress created a new court (the Federal Circuit) to hear patent cases. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a United States court of appeals and was created by Congress with passage of the Federal Courts Improvement Following several landmark decision by this court, by the early 1990s the patentability of software was well established, and in 1996 the USPTO issued Final Computer Related Examination Guidelines stating that "A practical application of a computer-related invention is statutory subject matter. This requirement can be discerned from the variously phrased prohibitions against the patenting of abstract ideas, laws of nature or natural phenomena" (emphasis added). [11]

The recent expansion of the Internet and e-commerce has led to many patents being applied for and being granted for business methods implemented in software and the question of whether business methods are statutory subject matter is a separate issue from the question of whether software is. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce' or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic Business method patents are a class of Patents which disclose and claim new Methods of doing business. There have been several successful enforcement trials in the USA, some of which are listed in the list of software patents article. This is a categorized list of notable Patents and Patent applications involving Computer programs often labelled Software patents The patents are listed according

Europe

Main article: Software patents under the European Patent Convention

Within European Union member states, the EPO and other national patent offices have issued many patents for inventions involving software since the European Patent Convention (EPC) came into force in the late 1970s. The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention (EPC is a multilateral Treaty Article 52 EPC excludes "programs for computers" from patentability (Art. The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention (EPC is a multilateral Treaty 52(2)) to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program "as such" (Art. 52(3)). This has been interpreted to mean that any invention which makes a non-obvious "technical contribution" or solves a "technical problem" in a non-obvious way is patentable even if that technical problem is solved by running a computer program. [12]

Computer-implemented inventions which only solve a business problem using a computer, rather than a technical problem, are considered unpatentable as lacking an inventive step (see T 258/03). Reasoning on patentable subject-matter The invention in the application under examination related to an "automatic Dutch auction method executed in Nevertheless, the fact that an invention is useful in business does not mean it is not patentable if it also solves a technical problem.

United Kingdom

Main article: Software patents under United Kingdom patent law

United Kingdom patent law is interpreted to have the same effect as the European Patent Convention such that "programs for computers" are excluded from patentability to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program "as such". There are four over-riding requirements for a Patent to be granted under United Kingdom patent law The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention (EPC is a multilateral Treaty Current case law in the UK states that an (alleged) invention will only be actually regarded as an invention if it provides a contribution that is not excluded and which is also technical. A computer program implementing a business process is therefore not an invention, but a computer program implementing an industrial process may well be.

Japan

Software-related inventions are patentable. To qualify as an invention, however, there must be "a creation of technical ideas utilizing a law of nature" although this requirement is typically met by "concretely realising the information processing performed by the software by using hardware resources". [13] Software-related inventions may be considered obvious if they involve: the application of an operation known in other fields; the addition of a commonly known means or replacement by equivalent; the implementation in software of functions which were previously performed by hardware; or the systematisation of known human transactions. [14]

Other countries

In India, a clause to include software patents was quashed by the Indian Parliament in April 2005. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Parliament of India (or Sansad) is the federal and supreme Legislative body of India. [15]

In Australia, pure or abstract methods of doing business are not considered to be patentable, but if the method is implemented using a computer, it avoids the exclusion for business methods. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. [16]

In the Philippines, "schemes, rules and methods of performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers" are non-patentable inventions under Sec. The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP 22. 2 of Republic Act No. 8293, otherwise known as the "Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines. "

Patentable subject matter

Main article: Patentable subject matter

Patents are intended to promote innovation by encouraging the timely disclosure of how to make and use inventions and by protecting investments made to commercialize inventions. In most patent laws patentable subject matter (or statutory subject matter) is the requirement that an Invention, for which Patent protection is sought They attempt to accomplish this by requiring that a prompt and full disclosure is made by an inventor of how to make and use his/her/their invention and by granting a monopoly right for a limited period of time to a patent owner to prevent others from making, using or selling the invention in exchange for said prompt and full disclosure. [2]

There is debate as to whether or not these aims are achieved with software patents. Software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of

Proposals

In seeking to find a balance, different countries have different policies as to where the boundary between patentable and non-patentable software should lie. In Europe, a number of different proposals for setting a boundary line were put forward during the debate concerning the proposed Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, none of which were found acceptable by the various parties to the debate. The European Union (EU Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions ( 2002/0047/COD) was a proposal for an EU law which aimed to harmonise Two particular suggestions for a hurdle that software must pass to be patentable include:

In the US, Ben Klemens, a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, proposed that patents should be granted only to inventions that include a physical component that is by itself nonobvious. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington D [19] This is based on Justice William Rehnquist's ruling in the U. William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice S. Supreme Court case of Diamond v. Diehr that stated that ". Diamond v Diehr,, was a US Supreme Court decision which held that the execution of a Process, controlled by running a Computer program was . . insignificant postsolution activity will not transform an unpatentable principle into a patentable process. " By this rule, one would consider software loaded onto a stock PC to be an abstract algorithm with obvious postsolution activity, while a new circuit design implementing the logic would likely be a nonobvious physical device. Upholding an "insignificant postsolution activity" rule as per Justice Rehnquist's ruling would also eliminate most business method patents. William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice Business method patents are a class of Patents which disclose and claim new Methods of doing business.

Obviousness

A common objection to software patents is that they relate to trivial inventions. [20] A patent on an invention that many people would easily develop independently of one another should not, it is argued, be granted since this impedes development. Different countries have different ways of dealing with the question of inventive step and non-obviousness in relation to software patents. The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general Patentability requirement present in most Patent Laws according to which an

Inventive step test in Europe

See Inventive step requirement in Europe and, for instance, T 258/03. The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions Reasoning on patentable subject-matter The invention in the application under examination related to an "automatic Dutch auction method executed in

Perceived negative effects

Compatibility

There are a number of high profile examples where the patenting of a data exchange standards forced another programming group to introduce an alternative format. For instance, the PNG format was introduced to avoid the GIF patent problems, and the Ogg Vorbis format was introduced to avoid the MP3 patent problems. Portable Network Graphics ( PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs Lossless data compression. To learn how to create video or audio files for Wikipedia and its sister projects check WikipediaCreation and usage of media files. Vorbis is a free and open source, lossy audio Codec project headed by the Xiph MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression If it is discovered that these new suggested formats are themselves covered by existing patents, the final result may be a large number of incompatible formats. Creating such formats and supporting them costs money, creates inconvenience to users and even threatens to split the Internet into several partially incompatible sub-networks (ASF and non-ASF, for example). Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format, Active Streaming Format) is Microsoft 's proprietary Digital audio

Conflicts

Computer-implemented invention (CII)

Main article: Software patents under the European Patent Convention

A microsite of the EPO website states that a generally accepted and widely used definition of a CII is "an invention whose implementation involves the use of a computer, computer network or other programmable apparatus, the invention having one or more features which are realised wholly or partly by means of a computer program. The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions "[21] A similar definition is provided by The Guidelines for Examination at the EPO. [22]

The EPO, in contrast, deny that they grant software patents. [23] They further argue that the term software patent is itself a misleading concept since it could imply that an invention must be in the form of software to count as a CII. The case law of the EPO[24] and various national courts in Europe[25] states that a computer program cannot be patented in the guise of an object or as hardware if the underlying invention is still a computer program as such. Computer-implemented invention also covers inventions relating to computer control of processes external to a computer, such as ABS braking systems. Such inventions are not caught by many definitions of software patent, such as the one proposed by the FFII. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a Non-profit organisation based in Munich Germany, dedicated to establishing a free [2]

Additionally, the EPO do not grant patents to all computer-implemented inventions since they must still provide a technical solution to a technical problem to be viewed as being inventive, whereas the term software patent implies a granted patent. The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions Nevertheless, the fact that the EPO deem that many software-related patent applications describe inventions is a point of contention.

Overlap with copyright

Protection by patent protection and copyright constitute two different means of legal protection which may cover the same subject-matter, such as computer programs, since each of these two means of protection serves its own purpose. [26] Software is protected as works of literature under the Berne Convention, thus any software written is automatically covered by copyright. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing Copyright Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for This allows the creator to prevent another entity from copying the program and there is generally no need to register code in order for it to be copyrighted.

Patents, on the other hand, give their owners the right to prevent others from using a claimed invention, even if it was independently developed and there was no copying involved. In fact, one of the most recent EPO decisions T 424/03 clarifies the distinction, stating that software is patentable, because it is basically only a technical method executed on a computer, which is to be distinguished from the program itself for executing the method, the program being merely an expression of the method, and thus being copyrighted.

Patents cover the underlying methodologies embodied in a given piece of software, or the function that the software is intended to serve, independent of the particular language or code that the software is written in. Copyright prevents the direct copying of some or all of a particular version of a given piece of software, but do not prevent other authors from writing their own embodiments of the underlying methodologies. Copyright can also be used to prevent a given set of data from being copied while still allowing the author to keep the contents of said set of data a trade secret. A trade secret is a Formula, practice, Process, Design, instrument, Pattern, or compilation of Information which

Free and open source software

Main article: Software patents and free software

There is tremendous animosity in the free software community towards software patents. Opposition to Software patents is widespread in the Free software community. Software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of The free software community is an informal term referring to the users and developers of Free software as well as supporters of the Free software movement. Much of this has been caused by free software/open source projects shutting down[27] when the holders of patents covering aspects of a project demanded license fees that the project could not or was not willing to pay or offered licenses under terms which the project was unwilling to accept, or could not accept because it conflicted with the free software licence in use. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge A free software licence is a Software licence which grants recipients rights to modify and redistribute the Software which would otherwise be prohibited by Copyright [28]

Several patent holders have offered royalty-free patent licenses. Companies that have done this include IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Novell,[29] Sun Microsystems and Unisys. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Nokia Corporation (pronunciation /'nɔkiɑ/),,) is a Finnish multinational Communications Corporation, headquartered Novell Inc ( is a global Software Corporation based in the United States specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services Unisys Corporation ( based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a global provider of information technology Such actions have rarely appeased the free/open source software community for reasons such as fear of the patent holder changing their mind or problems with some of the license terms. The free software community is an informal term referring to the users and developers of Free software as well as supporters of the Free software movement. [30]

In 2005 Sun Microsystems announced that they were making a portfolio of 1,600 patents available through a free software/open-source-type patent license called Common Development and Distribution License. Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services A free software licence is a Software licence which grants recipients rights to modify and redistribute the Software which would otherwise be prohibited by Copyright An open source license is a copyright License for Computer software that makes the source code available under terms that allow for modification and redistribution Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL is a Free software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL [31]. This was criticized by the free/open source software community, however, since it did not release the source code under a free/open source software license[32]

In 2006, Microsoft's patent pledge not to sue Novell Linux customers, openSUSE contributors, and free/open source software developers[33] and the associated collaboration agreement with Novell[34] was met with disdain from the Software Freedom Law Center[35] while commentators from the Free Software Foundation stated that the agreement would not comply with GPLv3. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks SUSE Linux distributions openSUSE, (ˌoʊpɛnˈsuːzə is a general purpose Operating system developed by the OpenSUSE Project. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC is an organization that provides legal representation and related services to protectand advance Free software / Open source [36][37]

Draft versions of the GNU GPL version 3 may also conflict with patents on software by preventing any patent holder from enforcing their patents against a user if said patent holder also distributes software covered by those patents under the GPL. [38]

General software developer unhappiness

In the late 1990s, Unisys claimed to have granted royalty free licenses to hundreds of not-for-profit organizations that used the patented LZW compression method and, by extension, the GIF image format. Lempel-Ziv-Welch ( LZW) is a universal Lossless data compression Algorithm created by Abraham Lempel, Jacob Ziv, and Terry However, this did not include most software developers and Unisys were "barraged" by negative and "sometimes obscene" emails from software developers. [39]

Jurisdictions

Substantive law regarding the patentability of software and computer-implemented inventions, and case law interpreting the legal provisions, are different under different jurisdictions. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Case law' (also known as decisional law or judicial precedent) is that body of reported Judicial opinions in countries that have Common law

Software patents under multilateral treaties:

Software patents under national laws:

Litigation

Several successful litigations show that software patents are enforceable in the US. Multilateralism is a term in International relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue A Treaty is an agreement under International law entered into by actors in international law namely States and International organizations. The WTO 's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs particularly Article 27 are important elements in the debate on the international legal The patentability of software, Computer programs and computer-implemented Inventions under the European Patent Convention (EPC is the extent to which inventions There are two provisions in the Regulations annexed to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT that relate to the search and examination of Patent applications concerning Software or computer programs are not explicitly mentioned in United States patent law. There are four over-riding requirements for a Patent to be granted under United Kingdom patent law See List of software patents for more examples. This is a categorized list of notable Patents and Patent applications involving Computer programs often labelled Software patents The patents are listed according

Similarly in Japan, software patents have been successfully enforced. In 2005, for example, Matsushita won a court order barring Justsystem from infringing Matsushita's Japanese patent 2,803,236 covering word processing software. is a major Japanese software development house The company is also known as "JustSystem A Tokyo court ordered Justsystem to pull their product from the market. On September 30th 2005, Intellectual Property High Court of Japan, which was newly formed in April 2005, granted Justsystems’ appeal. The original decision by the Tokyo District Court was overturned in October 2005.

Licensing

Main article: License
Total US software patents by class of invention as of 2004
Total US software patents by class of invention as of 2004

Patenting software is widespread in the US. The verb license or grant license means to give permission The noun license is the document demonstrating that permission As of 2004, approximately 145,000 patents had issued in the 22 classes of patents covering computer implemented inventions. (see table to the right).

Many software companies cross license their patents to each other. A cross-licensing agreement is a Contract between two or more parties where each party grants rights to their Intellectual property to the other parties These agreements allow each party to practice the other party's patented inventions without the threat of being sued for patent infringement. Patent infringement is the act of utilizing a patented Invention without permission from the Patent holder Often, there is no payment of any royalties between the parties. Microsoft, for example, has agreements with IBM, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens AG, Cisco, Autodesk[40] and recently Novell. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services SAP AG (,) is the largest European Software enterprise and the fourth largest in the world with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany Autodesk Inc ( is an American Multinational corporation that focuses on 2D and 3D design Software for use in architecture engineering Novell Inc ( is a global Software Corporation based in the United States specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Microsoft cross-licensed its patents with Sun, despite being direct competitors, and with Autodesk even though Autodesk has far fewer patents than Microsoft.

The ability to negotiate cross licensing agreements is a major reason that many software companies, including those providing open source software, file patents. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge As of June 2006, for example, Red Hat has developed a portfolio of 6 issued US patents, 1 issued European patent, 13 pending US patent applications, and 25 pending international PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent applications. In Computing, Red Hat Inc ( is a company dedicated to Free and open source software, and a major Linux distribution vendor A patent portfolio is a collection of Patents owned by a single entity such as an individual or Corporation. The Patent Cooperation Treaty ( PCT) is an International Patent Law Treaty, concluded in 1970 Red Hat uses this portfolio to cross license with proprietary software companies so that they can preserve their freedom to operate. [41]

Many software patent holders license their patents in exchange for monetary royalties. Royalties (sometimes running royalties) are usage-based payments made by one party (the "licensee" to another (the "licensor" for ongoing use of an Some patent owners, such as IBM, are in the business of selling the products they patent and view licensing as a way to increase the return on their investment in innovation. IBM generates an additional $US 2 billion per year by licensing. [42]

Other patent holders are in the business of inventing new computer implemented inventions and then commercializing the inventions by licensing the patents to other companies that manufacture the inventions. Walker Digital, for example, has generated a large patent portfolio from its research efforts, including the basic patent on the Priceline.com reverse auction technology. Walker Digital is an American Corporation based in Stamford Connecticut. Pricelinecom ( is company that operates a commercial Website that helps users obtain Discount rates for Travel -related items such as Airline US universities also fall into this class of patent owners. They collectively generate about $1. 4 billion per year through licensing the inventions they develop to both established and start up companies in all fields of technology, including software. [43]

Still other patent holders focus on obtaining patents from original inventors and licensing them to companies that have introduced commercial products into the marketplace after the patents were filed. Some of these patent holders, such as Intellectual Ventures, are privately held companies financed by large corporations such as Microsoft, Intel, Google, etc. Intellectual Ventures is a private company founded in 2000 to invest in "pure invention Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online Others, such as Acacia Technologies, are publicly traded companies with institutional investors being the primary shareholders. [44]

The practice of acquiring patents merely to license them is controversial in the software industry. Companies that have this business model are pejoratively referred to as patent trolls. Patent troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company that enforces its Patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered unduly It is an integral part of the business model that patent licensing companies sue infringers that do not take a license. Furthermore, they may take advantage of the fact that many companies will pay a modest license fee (e. g. $100,000 to $1,000,000) for rights to a patent of questionable validity, rather than pay the high legal fees ($2,000,000 on up) to demonstrate in court that the patent is invalid.

See also

Types of patents
edit box

Notes

a. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an A biological patent is a Patent relating to an Invention or discovery in Biology. Business method patents are a class of Patents which disclose and claim new Methods of doing business. A chemical patent is an important source of technical and bibliographic information In the United States, a design patent is a Patent granted on the ornamental design of a functional item The European Union (EU Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions ( 2002/0047/COD) was a proposal for an EU law which aimed to harmonise TRIPS redirects here For the new microprocessor design see TRIPS architecture. The Patent Commons Project was launched on November 15, 2005 by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL The Open Invention Network (OIN is a company that acquires Patents and licenses them Royalty free to entities which in turn agree not to assert their ^ The FFII are an anti-software patent group and the material associated with their definition of a software patent suggests that the purpose of the definition is to identify patents that should not be granted as a matter of policy. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a Non-profit organisation based in Munich Germany, dedicated to establishing a free

References

  1. ^ Defining a Software Patent. Public Patent Foundation. Public Patent Foundation, or PUBPAT, is a Nonprofit organization that seeks to limit perceived abuse of the United States patent system. Retrieved on 2007-05-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following
  2. ^ a b "The Gauss Project". FFII. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a Non-profit organisation based in Munich Germany, dedicated to establishing a free Retrieved on 2007-05-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following
  3. ^ Software patents in Europe: debunking the myths, OUT-LAW News, 19/08/2004
  4. ^ Public consultation on level of the inventive step required for obtaining patents. UK Intellectual Property Office. The UK Intellectual Property Office, or UK-IPO is the operating name of what was until April 2 2007 called The Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-06-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 70 - Titus and his Roman Legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem in the Siege of Jerusalem
  5. ^ Patenthawk.com blog entry
  6. ^ GB patent 1039141
  7. ^ Beresford, K (2000) Patenting Software under the European Patent Convention, London: Sweet & Maxwell, page 4. See also http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2003_1/kretschmer/.
  8. ^ U.S. Patent 3,552,738 , U.S. Patent 3,553,358  and U.S. Patent 3,553,384  granted 5 Jan 1971, and U.S. Patent 3,996,564  granted December 7, 1976 can be easily found using the Bessen/Hunt technique. The Bessen/Hunt technique is a way of identifying Software patents within the Patent Database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Earlier patents may exist but US patent database does not permit full text searching for earlier patents
  9. ^ Gottschalk v Benson, 409 U.S. 63 (1972)
  10. ^ Diamond v. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981)
  11. ^ Final Computer Related Examination Guidelines
  12. ^ T469/03, Reasons 5. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 1 to 5. 3
  13. ^ Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan, Japanese Patent Office, May 2005, page 11
  14. ^ Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan, Japanese Patent Office, May 2005, pages 16-17
  15. ^ Software patents under Ordinance face reversal
  16. ^ AIPLA International Patent Law Handbook: Software and Business Method Inventions Australia
  17. ^ Amendment 23 introduced on September 2003 by the European Parliament to the proposed Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions [1], "Dispositions program decision" (BGH 22/6/1976), Nordic Patent Law treaty. The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU The European Union (EU Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions ( 2002/0047/COD) was a proposal for an EU law which aimed to harmonise The “ Federal Court of Justice of Germany ” ( German: “ Bundesgerichtshof ” or “ BGH ” is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction
  18. ^ Decision T 59/93 of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, Reasons, point 3. Decisions of the first instances of the European Patent Office (EPO can be Appealed i 4
  19. ^ Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2006, p A9 WSJ link (subscription required)
  20. ^ Patent absurdity | Technology | guardian.co.uk
  21. ^ Computer-Implemented Inventions (CII)
  22. ^ EPO microsite on CIIs
  23. ^ EPO CII Brochure
  24. ^ T0158/88
  25. ^ Judgment in CFPH's application
  26. ^ Decision T 1173/97 of the Boards of appeal of the EPO, July 1, 1998, Reasons 2. Reasoning The Board first examined the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the EPC 4 - see T 1173/97 on the EPO boards of appeal section of the EPO web site.
  27. ^ http://www.gnu.org/patent-examp/patent-examples.html
  28. ^ http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/effects
  29. ^ Patent Policy
  30. ^ Microsoft's Open Specification Promise: No Assurance for GPL. Software Freedom Law Center. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC is an organization that provides legal representation and related services to protectand advance Free software / Open source
  31. ^ Sun Grants Global Open Source Community Access to More than 1,600 Patents, Sun press release, January 25, 2005
  32. ^ [Sun's patent umbrella springs some leaks, Silicon Valley Sleuth, January 27, 2005]
  33. ^ Community Commitments - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration (2).
  34. ^ Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support (2).  “Novell press release”
  35. ^ Microsoft’s developer patent pledge “worse than useless” says SFLC (10).
  36. ^ Microsoft makes Linux pact with Novell (2).
  37. ^ Microsoft patent deal could leave Novell behind (24).
  38. ^ HP may fork the GPL Stephen Shankland, CNET News. com, Published: 03 Aug 2006 09:05 BST
  39. ^ Unisys Not Suing (most) Webmasters for Using GIFs – Slashdot article from August 31, 1999
  40. ^ IDG News Service
  41. ^ redhat.com | Red Hat Patent Policy
  42. ^ Newsweek Article
  43. ^ untitled
  44. ^ http://premium.hoovers.com/subscribe/co/overview.xhtml?ID=fffrfkrhrrxhjcxxkh

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