On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 12:05 AM, jtd <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tuesday 10 August 2010 16:09:33 Krithika wrote: > > Dear All, > > > > The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is filing a pre-grant > > opposition to a software patent application by Microsoft. > > As an adhoc measure too it will wind up as agreeing in principle to > software patents. The patent law is explicit in not allowing software > patents. The "per se" term is (imo) a qualifier to the next parts > which state that a programmable machine with software does not > qualify.
Hence we should be opposing software patents not on terms of prior art > or obviousness, but merely on the grounds of being bad practice by > the patent office. Dear JTD, It is a bit of a complex issue. There are some people in the patent office who agree that this is bad practice, but the question is, who is will bell the cat? I see the oppositions proposed by CIS as valuable because it makes use of the remedial measures made available to Indian citizens under the Patent Act. It is this kind of vigilance that can help us weed out bad patents from the system. I agree with you 100 percent when you say, "we should be opposing software patents not on terms of prior art or obviousness, but merely on the grounds of being bad practice by the patent office." We must point this out to the patent office. I am also assuming that, if efforts like that of CIS are successful in invalidating bad patents, it will eventually change the evaluation procedures followed by the patent office and reduce the chances of bad patents being granted. Venky
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