🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <uXqDHB30w164w@mantis.co.uk>, mathew@mantis (From A to B) writes:
>mycroft@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Charles Hannum) writes in
><1992Mar8.145032.11096@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>:
>>
>>			    SECTION 5:  PATENTS
>>
>>		  Article 27:  Patentable Subject Matter
>>
>> 1.   Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 below, patents shall
>> be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all
>> fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step
>> and are capable of industrial application.1
>
>This is absolutely insane.  Surely this means I could (say) invent a new
>method of multiplying numbers which was better than long multiplication, and
>then go around prosecuting people for using my process to multiply numbers in
>their heads.

Yes, I suppose that is the basic idea - but you'll have to show
industrial applications.  In practice this probably means that if you
someone as an individual thinks of such a new method it needn't apply
because he/she often doesn't have the $$ to go and sue everyone and
their cousin, but if Acme Inc does it and starts prosecuting anyone
using it, it's a profitable industry and thus capable of industrial
application and every country must accept it as a valid patent.

//Jyrki