Worldwide Status of Software Patents?

Seth Johnson seth.johnson at realmeasures.dyndns.org
Wed Feb 19 01:18:32 UTC 2003


(Forwarded from Patents list)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 18:06:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Russell McOrmond <russell at flora.ca>
To: patents at aful.org
CC: General Copyright Discussions
<discuss at digital-copyright.ca>,
<gigalaw-discuss at lists.gigalaw.com>


Dear list members,

  I am a self-employed consultant doing a report on the
issue of software patents.  While I am personally on the
side of believing that software should be ineligible for
patents, a complete report needs to include references
worldwide to the current state of the question, and present
this factual information in an unbiased manner.

  Any links to current references would be appreciated.  I
am looking for what is said within the patent acts of
various countries, current practices of patent offices, and
precedent on key software patent cases that made it to
court.

  While the report is focused on software patents, I am also
interested in the general question of patentability in each
country and whether it is clear to the relevant stakeholders
in each country whether software or other hotly debated
forms of patents are eligible.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant:
<http://www.flora.ca/>
 Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be
eye-glasses, 
 VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of
the citizen 
 and not a third party.   -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/



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