taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Patents: One of the key arguments in favour of the new EU software patenting directive as it’s currently worded, from the ‘pro’ side, is that it doesn’t ‘allow software patents as such’, since it requires a ‘technical’ inventive step for a patent to be considered valid.

Various MEPs have tried to clarify the meaning of this vague phrase, but without luck so far.

Coverage has mostly noted this as meaning that ‘pure software’ patents are not permissible, for example this Washington Post article, FT.com,and InformationWeek.

But is this really the case, in pragmatic terms? What does a ‘technical inventive step’ mean to the European Patent Office?

Well, it doesn’t look at all promising, according to this report from the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office from 21 April 2004, dealing with a Hitachi business method patent on an ‘automatic auction method’. The claims of that patent application (97 306 722.6) covered the algorithm of performing an auction over a computer network using client-server technology. The actual nature of this patent isn’t important, anyway — but what is important is how the Boards of Appeal judge its ‘technical’ characteristics.

The key section is 3.7, where the Board writes:

For these reasons the Board holds that, contrary to the examining division’s assessment, the apparatus of claim 3 is an invention within the meaning of Article 52(1) EPC since it comprises clearly technical features such as a “server computer”, “client computers” and a “network”.

So in other words, if the idea of a computer network is involved in the claims of a patent, it ‘includes technical aspects’. It then goes on to discuss other technical characteristics that may appear in patents:

The Board is aware that its comparatively broad interpretation of the term “invention” in Article 52(1) EPC will include activities which are so familiar that their technical character tends to be overlooked, such as the act of writing using pen and paper.

So even writing with a pen and paper has technical character!

It’s a cop-out, designed to fool MEPs and citizens into thinking that a reasonable limitation is being placed on what can be patented, when in reality there’s effectively no limits, if there’s any kind of equipment involved beyond counting on your fingers.

The only way to be sure is to ensure the directive as it eventually passes is crystal clear on this point, with the help of the amendments that the pro-patent side are so keen to throw out.

(BTW, I found this link via RMS’ great article in the Guardian where he discusses software patenting using literature as an analogy. recommended reading!)

Tags: appeal, article, board, computer, european, meaning, network, patent, patents, software, step

Ireland: Worth watching for european software-patent watchers, Forfás, Ireland’s ‘national policy advisory board on enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation’ are running a series of monthly seminars on ‘Intellectual Property’ in association with Licensing Executives Society Britain and Ireland.

This one looks quite interesting — 10 June: ‘Patenting Software - The Current State of Play’, Author Barry Moore, of Hanna Moore & Curley, patent attorneys.

Interested parties can attend with pre-registration, or wait to download the mp3 at Forfás’ website, apparently, along with the rest of the lecture series. (No sign what the license is on those files, though ;)

Tags: board, enterprise, european, forfs, ireland, policy, science, series, technology, trade, worth

Science: I’m the human genome, says ‘Darth Venter’ of genetics (Observer).

Craig Venter, the controversial geneticist who led private industry’s decoding of the human genome, has revealed a startling secret. The genome - unravelled two years ago - is his.

To the surprise of scientists, Venter has admitted that much of the DNA used by his company, Celera Genomics, as part of this decoding effort came from his cells. The news has annoyed his colleagues, who claim that Venter subverted the careful, anonymous selection process they had established for their DNA donors.

I missed this story when it came out, but it’s a biggie. Instead of mapping the genome of a scientifically-chosen representative, we have the genome of an egomaniac CEO, who spent the entire project self-aggrandizing and attention-seeking.

Just as well the publicly-funded, international Human Genome Project was around to keep them honest for the most part…

Some more choice quotes:

‘It doesn’t surprise me. It sounds like Craig,’ said Nobel laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

As to his reasons for his actions, Venter was unequivocal. ‘How could one not want to know about one’s own genome?’ he said. Neither was he fazed about accusations of egocentricity. ‘I’ve been accused of that so many times, I’ve got over it,’ he said.

Celera’s science board was not so understanding. ‘Any genome intended to be a landmark should be kept anonymous. It should be a map of all of us, not of one, and I am disappointed if it is linked to a person,’ said board member Arthur Caplan.

He added that the drive to sequence the human genome was an opportunity for personal glory as well as scientific discovery. Venter’s action emphasised the first motive.

Tags: board, celera, darth, dna, geneticist, genome, industry, observer, part, project, science

With SARS terrorizing Hong Kong, the slogan the HK Tourist Board chose for their ads in such mags as Cosmopolitan and Conde Nast Traveller seems pretty unfortunate — Hong Kong will take your breath away. oops! (the Guardian)

Tags: board, breath, conde, cosmopolitan, guardian, nast, sars, slogan, tourist, traveller

Richard Dawkins: why Prince Charles is so wrong (via BB).

An interesting read, if only because Richard Dawkins misses several massive chunks of the anti-GMO argument, as several folks point out on the BB discussion board. Firstly, the profit drive is the only thing driving deployed GM products, and that’s already been shown to produce unsafe results, in the UK with BSE. Secondly, as one of the posters says, ‘Oh, yeah – Dawkins is absolutely right (in comparing GM to modifying running software): Nothing to gripe about when people tinker with your mission critical apps’.

Tags: anti, argument, board, discussion, drive, firstly, gmo, profit, read, thing

“A man managed to escape the World Trade Centre as it was hit by a hijacked jet, only to find out that his sister and young niece were on board.” Life doesn’t get much more tragic than this.

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 17:33:11 +0100
From: “Donal O’Carroll” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Tragic twist for Irish survivor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550792,00.html

Tragic twist for Irish survivor

Staff and agencies Wednesday September 12, 2001

A man managed to escape the World Trade Centre yesterday as it was hit by a hijacked jet, only to find out that his sister and young niece were on board, his family revealed today.

Irishman Ronnie Clifford fled after the first plane struck the twin towers in New York yesterday, and escaped the second tower as it was hit by the United Airlines Boeing 767.

In a devastating turn of events, his sister Ruth Clifford McCourt, 45, and her four-year-old daughter Juliana were passengers on the second plane - they died as he escaped.

Meanwhile, British officials in New York believe that at least 15 Britons may be among the missing in the devastated rubble of the World Trade Centre. Consular officials are currently liasing with emergency services to try to establish identities.

Mrs McCourt, originally from the Lough, Cork, was among 56 passengers on the hijacked plane which was travelling from Boston to Los Angeles.

Mr Clifford’s brother, John, today told of their deaths and his brother’s escape. John, also from Cork, said he began fearing for his sister and niece after discovering that his brother was safe.

He said: “Tragically my sister hit the tower building as my brother was on the ground floor. He’s safe now. He’s very traumatised.”

John Clifford said he became concerned when the two buildings collapsed because he knew his brother worked in one. However, he later “phoned to say he made it, he was OK, traumatised, that he was within an inch of his life”.

“He went through the front door on the ground floor and a lady was about three seconds in front of him. She was hit by a terrific fireball. She subsequently died,” he added.

“He said that unfortunately, while he was okay, he had a feeling that his sister - my sister - had left Logan airport to go to Los Angeles with her daughter at around 7.30 in the morning.

“So we were then concerned that she may have been on either of the two flights that crashed into the towers, and that was confirmed,” he said.

A friend of Mrs McCourt, who lived in Connecticut and was flying to LA for a few days’ holiday, was also killed.

Mr Clifford said his sister’s husband was absolutely devastated. Juliana was their only child. Mr Clifford said she was a “beautiful” girl and described his sister as “full of life”.

Tags: board, brother, centre, life, niece, plane, sister, trade, tragic, world