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Comment Re:Summary is Troll Rant (Score 1) 795

But at no point does Mr. Gobry actually rant about any of them

I said the summary is a rant. I did not read the linked article. The quote appear to have been cut up quite a bit. Notice all the ... in it. The summary starts off with hyperbolic statements, freshly defined jargon, and lots of insults. It contains no news. It is an "Us" vrs "Them" opinion piece with an angry tone. It is a rant.

The worst thing I am reading in these comments is basically "I don't understand the summary".

Insult Insult Insult. No reasonable argument here.

Comment Re:Defending software patents (Score 1) 92

A detailed description of a process in a textbook is also enough for any skilled programmer. For Alice and Bilski you can find the steps to perform the process in any finance book. Pseudocode and flow charts don't teach anything when the process is well known. Chances are finance books have charts in them as well. If your talking about a brand new process then your not talking about a software patent. Your patenting a new business method.

Comment Re:Patent Attorney chiming in (Score 1) 92

I think they would of been better off ruling that performing a known process on a computer is not a new use of use of a known machine. It would of been much clearer ruling that would have had the same effect. Changing the process does not result in a new computer if the computer is a general use(turing complete) computer. They could do this without overturning prior precedent by explaining that the facts changed as software development matured. They could explain that programmers after some given date can be expected to be able turn any detailed description of a process into code without inventing anything. That their conventional steps is not novel and is obvious according to industry testimony.

Comment Re:Defending software patents (Score 1) 92

You dont' get it. I can get pseudo-code from the finance text book. Any detailed description of the process is pseudo-code. "put the bits of plastic together" is the transformation of that detailed description into actual code. A patent is just a poorly reworded description of that process. It is a description that I need some legalese to understand.

Comment 101 comes first before 103 (Score 1) 92

"suggesting an additional good or service... based on certain information obtained about the customer and the initial purchase" is not a 101 "process" as defined by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has defined "process" as "technological process". Therefor it falls outside the statute and 103 does not apply. Even non obvious improvements that are actually novel would not apply. Your patent has to target something in the list of things in 101.

Comment Re:Patent Attorney chiming in (Score 1) 92

Section 101: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

The supreme court has over the last century defined what the words in that statement mean.
The word "abstract" is just shorthand for "not a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter or new and usefull improvement thereof"
The supreme court has a very narrow and limited definition of "process" for this statute.

Comment Re:Defending software patents (Score 2) 92

Patents don't disclose source code. So they don't teach a programmer how to "put the bits of plastic together". There is not enough utility in the patents. When creating a finanical application I am better off reading a textbook about finance than looking at patents. The textbook teaches the same thing but uses langauge a programmer can understand. If the patents disclosed souce code then there would be more fans. Patents could become an alternative to open source. The goverment could be using patents to build a library of code that future generations can build applications off of. Instead we get lawyers poorly paraphrasing existing knowledge.

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