Re: Software patents

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Article #1164

#1164

From: Bill Unruh
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 00:00

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In <v8wogrju4yf.fsf@m2-032-11.mit.edu> Maciej Stachowiak <mstachow@mit.edu> writes:

>You can't patent an application or purpose of a mathematical theorem
>(AFAIK). I still do not see how software is distinct from mathematical
>theorems or algorithms.

Yes you can. The public key encryption patent was exactly that. It told
about using modular exponentiation in order to encrypt. Now, the modular
exponentiation itself of course could not be patented (both becasue it
is math and because it had been invented many years ago), but the use of
modular exponentiation with a modulus which is the product of two primes
was patented (RSA). You could still use modular exponentiation to
produce say a random number generator, but not to encrypt. It is the
purpose that allows the technique to be patented. The purpose is not
patented-- the technique to achieve that purpose is.

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<F0B8I1.475@a2e.de> <907546762snz@vision25.demon.co.uk>  <v8wk92dflo7.fsf@huis-clos.mit.edu>  <m3btnnd7pj.fsf@c26469-a.clnvl1.ct.home.com>  <v8wbtnmra51.fsf@huis-clos.mit.edu>  <m3u31epev9.fsf@c26469-a.clnvl1.ct.home.com>  <361ECCE9.A9EEED82@odin-consulting.com>  <v8waf34nc33.fsf@M66-080-10.mit.edu>  <362215c6.1954540@news.demon.co.uk> <6volut$8c2$1@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca> <v8wogrju4yf.fsf@m2-032-11.mit.edu>

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From: unruh@physics.ubc.ca (Bill Unruh)
Subject: Re: Software patents
Date: 1998/10/11
Message-ID: <6vppcv$3l2$1@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>
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References: <F0B8I1.475@a2e.de> <907546762snz@vision25.demon.co.uk>  <v8wk92dflo7.fsf@huis-clos.mit.edu>  <m3btnnd7pj.fsf@c26469-a.clnvl1.ct.home.com>  <v8wbtnmra51.fsf@huis-clos.mit.edu>  <m3u31epev9.fsf@c26469-a.clnvl1.ct.home.com>  <361ECCE9.A9EEED82@odin-consulting.com>  <v8waf34nc33.fsf@M66-080-10.mit.edu>  <362215c6.1954540@news.demon.co.uk> <6volut$8c2$1@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca> <v8wogrju4yf.fsf@m2-032-11.mit.edu>
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