Hi, On Tuesday 29 Mar 2005 5:35 pm, BAIN wrote: > No its not.... > Indian patent system bars patenting algorithms or the instructions or > mathematical formulae explicitly. The Indian patent system *used to* bar patenting ....up until sometime last Dec. Then this is what happened: http://swpat.ffii.org/log/04/nath12/index.en.html
This news also got slashdotted btw, http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/27/1323237&from=rss > The ordiance however added an ambiguity, to this otherwise clear law, > that the software combined with a hardware and/or a industrial > function can be patented. This brings in lot of algorithms and > software to the gray area, major parts being mobile phone software > which is otherwise just software (eg. JPEG decoder library in a > mobile). That is partially correct. The ambiguity however, is that on one hand when they say "a computer programme per se" is not patentable, it's "technical application to industry" (what you refer to as industrial function) is patentable. Now, this is a concern for a lot of OSS software, since that hack that you might do to make your digicam play well with your USB port may infring a patent since it has an "application to industry". In fact, given the ridiculous manner in which the US patent office grants patents, it wouldn't be hard to imagine India going the same way. Then the concern is for all IT houses save the BIG firms (read multinational firms and/or firms who would use making money through enforcement of patents as their main business model). > This ordiance is likely to be reversed and India will be > software patents free again. Well, I surely hope so. It should be reversed completely though. Not only the "combination with hardware" part. For an example of how bad it can get have a look at: http://www.tifac.org.in/news/press27.htm excerpts (these are examples of patents granted in the US): > Wiproâs unit based in the US obtained a patent in 1999 itself on network > management using brower based technology. WTF !!! > Kudrollis Software Inventions obtained a US patent in 2001 on abbreviating > > and compacting text to cope with the display space constraints in computer. > Similarly, Satyam Enterprise Solutions, India and In Touch Technologies in > US obtained a US patent on telephony platform. WTBF !!! > Ofcourse this was my interpretation, am i wrong??? OTOH, I could (hopefully) be very wrong. That's all the more reason to have someone authoritative spread awareness. Regards Steve -- ______________________________________________________________________ Pune GNU/Linux Users Group Mailing List: (plug-mail@plug.org.in) List Information: http://plug.org.in/mailing-list/listinfo/plug-mail Send 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for mailing instructions.
