If you make an algorithm to have a better anti-locking brake, then the use of this algorithm for physical anti-locking brakes should be patentable, the use of the same algorithm in a video-codec should not be patentable. The line should be drawn where actual physics (and knowledge and innovative use of phsics) is necessary. And software code is pure Mathematics.Ī Mathematician cannot patent his solutions to mathematical problems, as well as a programmer should not be able to patent his solutions to a mathematical problem (like data compression is one). What exactly is not patentable is also given: Mathematics. How far away a usual software patent tody is from the ideas of the constitution writes can be easily seen. What is in the US constitution is merely the statement, that the congress CAN (not MUST!!!) give a limited time monopoly to inventors in exchange for their making the invention public. That court refused to take a case regarding the patentability of software ideas until this date. It is NOT the interpretation of the highest US court. That is the very long stretched interpretation of the USPTO and the courts that handle patent cases (special courts for IP laws). Just to note, as patenting algorithms is specifically permitted by the U.S. Patents do NOT protect ideas (such as “headache tablet”) per se, they protect only one possible method of doing something (such as “formula for paracetamol”). Therefore, as an example, even during the time when Panadol/Tylenol was on the market and its makers held a valid patent for the formula for paracetamol, that patent did not prevent other pharmaceutical companies from putting their own competing headache tablets on the market, such as aspirin, dispirin, codeine, naprogesic (naproxen) or nurofen (ibuprofen). Patents protect only a particular method of doing something. Holding a patent does NOT grant a monopoly on an idea, and it does NOT prevent others from making a competing product. This seems to be a common misconception amongst Americans in particular.
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