I wrote: > I am not "pro-software-patent". I think that the USPTO (and, from the > look of it, the EPO) are doing a profoundly incompetent job of > filtering out the trivial and the erroneous from _all_ kinds of patent > applications, not just those which permit an implementation in terms > of a Von Neumann machine with some useful peripherals. But the > reality here on Planet Earth is that the law is a blunt tool ...
... and if you think that US legislators, and even the PTO itself, are not concerned about the "volume of patents" and "cost and difficulty of invalidating cruft" problems, read the CongressDaily article at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/042605cdam1.htm . A sane quotation from Sen. Orrin Hatch? Who knew? Cheers, - Michael
