It's a miracle of miracles, but it appears that we agree on something with Thomas Vinje, legal counsel to the Microsoft Hater's Caucus, and anti-software patent campaigner, Peter Hintjens. On Friday, Alison Brimelow, president of the European Patent Office, referred how to assess the patentability of software-related inventions to the [...]
The patent system has gotten a (sometimes deservedly) bad rap in recent years, but yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in the Tivo v. Echostar case is a great reminder of what patents are SUPPOSED to do: reward real innovators and keep larger competitors from stealing their work. By all accounts, Tivo [...]
While we don't always see eye-to-eye with TechDirt's Mike Masnick on issue of intellectual property, he has a great post today entitled, "Why Shouldn't Competitors Be Able To Weigh In On Patent Applications?" In the article, Masnick suggests that: Another way to test obviousness to those skilled in the art [...]
The blogosphere has been all aflutter with the analysis that Tom Kemp at Centrify has done of the draft protocol-patent mapping provided by Microsoft for its Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) and the Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP). Many people find it interesting and surprising that 80% of the [...]
The European Parliament has a department called “Scientific Technology Options Assessment” or STOA. STOA has recently announced a report on the European patents system, outlining policy options for improving the system. As readers know, patent systems tend to be a controversial issue and theSTOA’s preliminary report was therefore the hotly [...]