[Asterisk-Users] Digium and mailing lists

[Benjamin on Asterisk Mailing Lists]

On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 20:03:07 +0100, Kevin Walsh <kevin at cursor.biz> wrote:

> My point is that
> software and algorithm patents are simply not enforceable in England,
> so the only defence would be to point this out, and that defence would
> win every time.  To put it simply for you (again), software and
> mathematical patents are not legal in England and Europe at the
> moment, so there would be no case to answer.

That's all nice and good in theory, but in practise things are
seldomly that clear cut. The trouble starts then the patent holder's
attorneys, expert witnesses and the witnesses from the patent office
convince the court that what you and I would describe as a software
patent is in fact a hardware patent, because that's precisely what
they are going to do, because that is the strategy upon which their
questionable patent portfolio was probably built in the first place.

What Steve tried to explain was that the boundaries what is a software
patent and what is not are blurred because clever patent attorneys
know how to word the patents such that even an obviously software
centric invention becomes a legitimate looking physical apparatus that
can be patented.

What else would you expect a patent attorney to do? Send a prospective
client away and miss out on collecting attorney fees? No, they are
going to tell that prospective client exactly what they have to do so
the software invention becomes a patentable invention at least on
paper.

Yes, you can have such a hidden software patent revoked, but it is not
as easy as you make it sound. Those patent attorneys know their spiel.

> Of course, the case would not get to court in the first place because
> the winner always pays the losers costs, and the people with the bogus
> software patent would always lose.  The best they could hope for is to
> get some mileage out of threatening people who they claim have breached
> their bogus patent.

This sounds like North Korean propaganda on how everybody lives a good
life in piece and harmony and without any hardship over there. Yet
most citizens of the world including the North Koreans themselves know
that reality is the exact opposite.

If I was to give you one pound or one Euro for every patent attorney
who'd agree with this ideal world picture of yours and you were to
give me one pound or one Euro for every patent attorney who'd
disagree, then I could look forward to a nice retirement fund ;-)

rgds
benjk

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