On Thursday 15 July 2010 12:40:20 Venkatesh Hariharan wrote: > http://nzoss.org.nz/news/2010/minister-announces-no-software-patent >s Minister Announces No Software Patents > Submitted by Feynmanfan on July 15, 2010 - 14:30.
This is great news. Our patent office continues to hide their head under the sand, by not reversing many software patents already issued by them, in direct contravention of the law. > Minister of Commerce Simon Power today > announced<http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister+announces+way >+forward+software+patents>that further amendment to the Patent Bill > is neither necessary nor desirable, and that the insertion of an > exception for software would prevail. He has also asked IPONZ to > formulate draft guidelines and seek the views of interested parties > regarding patents involving embedded software. Embedded software is absolutely no different from any other software. One often hears arguments filled with sophistry about the special nature of "microcode" (VHDL etc). Microcode, just like any other code requires a programmable device to run on or programmed into. Having done the microcode programming, the resultant device as a whole may be subjected the usual patentebility test and may qualify for a patent. If a patent is granted it is for the device with it's particular arrangement of circuit elements. Never for the mathematical principles that led to this particular arrangement of circuit elements. However interested parties (which includes every hardware mfg worth 2 pence) try to obfusicate this straightforward logic. Circuit design has progressed from single transistors, to integrated circuits, to asics, to FPGAs. However the underlying circuit and logic theory + maths remains the same. Due to the increasingly complex nature of circuit design, almost everybody uses HDLs to describe their circuit as a high level function. The HDL is compiled by compilers to generate actual gate level interconnect fusemaps and schematics, incase of FPGAs. Incase of asics you get a layout and metalization file which is fab specific. The fuse map or metallization file is then burned into the fpga or used to produce the interconnect metallization layer or even a full blown gatelevel asics. The final outcome is a electronic device with functions as permited by the maths. The above process has a one-to-one similarity with the creation of a software package. Any attempt at claiming otherwise is a lie. It is akin to claiming patents on the maths done a 100 years earlier. -- Rgds JTD _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
