Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
When it comes to software patents, the US is no longer the place to be. China might be it and as the EPO mimics China — as disturbing as that may be also in the human rights aspect — patent law firms now openly say that it's easier to get (and/or defend) software patents in Europe than it is in the US.
Over the past 3 years we have been writing a lot about Alice — the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision that ended a lot of software patents in the US. For software patents to withstand a court's scrutiny (the higher, the harder) has become the exception rather than the norm. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has just reaffirmed this position (late on Friday). There is still no sign — however remote — that SCOTUS will revisit a case like Alice, but sites like Watchtroll work hard lobbying for such a thing to happen. We last gave an example of that approximately one week ago. Just escalated up to SCOTUS were a bunch of cases that involve no software patents at all; there was also Sandoz v Amgen.
Source: http://techrights.org/2017/04/30/not-overturning-alice/
[Ed. Note: The Alice decision referred to is Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. See also: A non-paywalled article about Sandoz v. Amgen.]
(Score: 2, Disagree) by kaszz on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:04PM (3 children)
USA has software patents asfaik, even though the Alice case seems to have punctured that patentabilty.
Europe don't have software patents and don't have plans for it either asfaik.
China will not protect any patents, they steal them (asfaik).
Russia? dunno..
Latin America?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:52PM (2 children)
Now would be the point where you would link to a -recent- decision where those were upheld rather than struck down.
"After Alice" is definitely a thing.
asfaik
Therein lies your problem.
.
The problem in Europe is that governing bodies haven't been doing their jobs properly and have been giving Battistelli free rein/reign.
He has his own little unregulated fiefdom.
Remember the DHS guy who spent bucketfuls of public money to build a facility that resembled the control room of the Starship Enterprise?
Same sort of deal here.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 06 2017, @12:09AM (1 child)
Who is this Battistelli? and what is he up to?
"That DHS guy" is he up to some software patent shit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @04:22AM
He's top dog at the European Patent Office.
Fristy mentioned him by name twice.
DHS ?
I disremembered.
It wasn't the Department of Homeland Security.
It was Keith Alexander at NSA. [google.com]
He used large amounts of public money to turn an office building into a movie set like he was still 14 years old and no one stopped him.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]