25 Aug 2006
Patent Law Ruling Threatens FOSS

Rather than making it better, we're making it worse. Instead of fixing problems, ruling like this create them. It's as though we're Hel bent on killing the geese that lay those golden eggs called American technology.

The EFF has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a patent law ruling that could pose a serious threat to Free and Open Source Software projects. A recent Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decision required that even the most obvious incremental advances can be patented unless it can be proved that someone else suggested it prior to the patent being filed. As such, many 'bad patents' are being used as roadblocks for legitimate innovators, especially those working for FOSS projects (who have better things to do then search through thousands of technical papers for some mention of the obvious). The full brief is available online in PDF format.

(link) [Slashdot]

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