🚀 go-pugleaf

preston@titan.rice.edu (Preston Briggs) writes:
>
>My favorite is IBM's patent 4,571,678,
>titled "Register allocation and spilling via graph coloring."  
>Inventor is Gregory Chaitin from Yorktown Heights, NY, 
>the application date is 11/5/82, and the grant date is 2/18/86. 
>
>I don't know of any court challenges.

Minor point: It is not up to someone using the patented technology to
challenge in court.  The most frequent strategy, and apparently best
from a legal standpoint is to simply use the technology whose
patentability you doubt, and put the burden of initiating legal action
on the patent holder.  Over half of all patents granted by the Patent
Office are tossed out by the court (and this figure includes a vast
majority of patents on much more well-established grounds than the one
above.)

Why bother with a Patent Office then?  It forces the patent holder to
follow a standard form, creates a central reference for those worried
about potential infringement to consult, and tosses out the most
ridiculous claims.  (This used to include all software patents in
happy days of yore).  By allowing software patents the Patent Office
is not saying software is patentable.  It is saying that it does not
want to risk being sued for denying the patent application, and has
decided to allow the affected parties to contest the issue in the
courts.

Some software patents have made money from people who have decided
paying royalties is easier than contesting the lawsuit, and many
people have avoided using a patented technology for similar reasons,
but I know of no software patent which has ever been tested in court.
And note that most of those going to court with intellectual property
claims in software these days are using the copyright laws, not the
patent laws.  That tells you something.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but these days I spend more time in
court than most lawyers.
-- 

Jeffrey Kegler, Independent UNIX Consultant, Algorists, Inc.
jeffrey@algor2.ALGORISTS.COM or uunet!algor2!jeffrey
1762 Wainwright DR, Reston VA 22090