Software Patent News for December 28th

  • Abandoning software patents? [Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)]
    ” . . . The Supreme Court isn’t obliged to rule on the patentability of software ideas. Bilski’s patent is a business method patent, not a software patent. So why might the court make a broad ruling which would cover software? For people who are already aware of the legal arguments, [the author, CiarĂ¡n O’Riordan, Exective Director of End Software Patents] . . . offer[s] a review of the socio-economic arguments for abandoning software patents. . . “
  • In Defense of Software Patents — [Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)]
    “This article does not argue for or against the patenting of BPMs. Rather, it tries to explain why inventions implemented in software are well within current US Patent Law[3] using examples and analogies that I [the author] believe are irrefutable. It also explains why software should be viewed a machine component of a general purpose computer (a machine). . .”
  • The Bilski Oral Argument [Intellectual Property Colloquium]
    IP Colloquium stages a reading of the oral argument that occurred at the U.S. Supreme Court on the In re Bilski case. The Bilski case raises the issue under 35 U.S.C. 101 regarding what should be patentable subject matter.
  • Microsoft barred from selling Word [ars technica]
    “The US Court of Appeals has ordered Microsoft to drop support for editing Custom XML in Word, essentially stopping the company from selling current versions of one of its flagship products and affirming a $290 million patent infringement judgment against the software giant. . .”