🚀 go-pugleaf

[stuff deleted]

> Is a "software" patent held on a specific algorithm, or on the partial
> recursive function that that algorithm defines?

It should be impossible to get a software patent a particular algorithm.
This kind of system won't protect (small) software companies, on the contrary.
Why would one try to standarize UI for instance and at the same time try
to get a patent for using two different objects from this UI library at
the same time? [No answer please].

=> This question is perhaps answerable for less than one million dollars in
=> legal fees, but I doubt it.

=> A layman's reading of the law would seem to say that algorithm patents
=> are not permitted.  But the Patent and Trademark Office disagrees.  So
=> do many patent lawyers.

Probably because they can earn a lot of money with it. Finally, the
possibility to get a patent for an algorithm or piece of code will
kill the software industry (except for a few big companies) and they have
no job anymore :-).

Hans Fleurkens
Eindhoven University of Technology.