On Mon, Dec 30, 2019 at 4:44 AM W2HX via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> software is currently non-patentable. Not sure the order of when it > was/wasnt but currently is not. > I don't know anything about patents in other countries, but in the USA, software is _definitely_ patentable, and has been since the 1970s. It was ruled in 1853 that an abstract idea apart from its implementation is not patentable (O'Reilly v. Morse). However, it has later been considered that software is (or at least can be) more than just an abstract idea (Diamond v. Diehr 1981). What changed recently is that SCOTUS ruled in Alice Corp. V. CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. 208 (2014) that taking some existing process or business practice and doing exactly the same thing with a computer or software involved is NOT a new patentable invention.
