Not to belabour the case against software patents, but as a newly converted follower of the Cult of Mac I found this one quite interesting. Apple has been sued by small web developer EMG Technology for infringement of its patent protecting an “apparatus and method of manipulating a region on Read more…
(Via Colin Miller) NCSoft, the producers of virtual worlds such as Lineage, City of Heroes and Guild Wars has been sued by virtual platform developer Worlds.com, which holds several patents on 3D environments. Back in December, Terra Nova had reported that Worlds.com had announced that it would be enforcing its Read more…
I finally got around to reading In Re Bilski (via Groklaw), the latest landmark case in the United States with regards to patentability issues. While abstract ideas are not patentable, ever since the case State Street, the U.S. has allowed mere abstractions as patentable subject matter if they produce a Read more…
Habitual readers may suspect already that I think software patents are a *bleeping* bad idea. Yeah, they are often filed by *bleeping* patent trolls, or are awarded to *bleeping* obvious “inventions” that do not advance the state of the art in any *bleeping* way. Enter U.S. Patent 7,437,290 which describes Read more…
I have been following with interest the software patent case of Symbian v Comptroller General for Patents. The Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal by the UKIPO, which seems to move English software patent rulings closer to te EPO Board of Appeals interpretation. As background, Symbian is a UK Read more…
While I was away presenting on software patents in Brazil an important decision took place last week. Aerotel v Telco is one of the most important cases in this area, and the patent that originated it has now been repealed because of obviousness. Aerotel is an Israeli patent troll that Read more…
The geeks are up in arms because Microsoft has won approval of its much maligned Office Open XML (OOXML) format as an open standard. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has finally allowed OOXML to become an international standard after its initial rejection last year, but the decision still can Read more…
(via Ray Corrigan) I have been following the saga of U.S. Patent 6,988,138 protecting “Internet-based education support system and methods”. After winning an injunction in a Texas court, Blackboard has seen 44 of its claims knocked out in a preliminary injunction by the USPTO. Ray has a comprehensive report, so Read more…
I mentioned yesterday the new case in the High Court of England and Wales regarding software patents, Symbian Ltd v Comptroller General Of Patents. Symbian Ltd is a UK company which produces a mobile operating system, and in 2004 made a PCT application for “Mapping of dynamic link libraries in Read more…
The latest software patent UK High Court case, Symbian Ltd v Comptroller General Of Patents [2008] EWHC 518 (Pat), has continued following the line set by Astron Clinica. The case exemplifies the split between UK-IPO and EPO practice on software patents, as the EPO awarded the patent, while the UK-IPO Read more…