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I disagree with your conflation of definitions | 627 comments | Create New Account
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I disagree with your conflation of definitions
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, November 01 2012 @ 04:23 PM EDT

I say conflation of definitions because I believe you are attributing to the software the honor that belongs to the hardware!

In your example of software routing, I'd say the potentially patented item1 is the hardware in both cases that you define. Never the software!

To allow the patenting of specific software as applied to hardware is the equivalent of allowing the patenting of entering a specific math formula as applied to a calculator!

If the hardware was designed such that you can apply a software solution in order to extend your ports: it's still the hardware change that made the allowance! The previous hardware had a limitation that was broken with the new hardware!

You can not use software - ever - to do something the hardware simply was not designed to do. The hardware totally defines the limitations that you can apply to software as attached to said hardware.

    You can use software to draw a picture on your current standard desktop computer that shows a computer walking away from the desk.
    But you will never, ever, ever be able to design your software on your current standard desktop computer to actually cause that computer itself to sprout legs and walk away! Ever!
    You can use software to draw a picture on your current standard desktop of the making of a cup of hot coffee complete with steam!
    But you will never, ever - ever - be able to use software to create a physical cup of coffee with said hardware so that you can actually smell the coffee and drink the coffee!
The device that makes it possible for one to provide such a software solution is the potentially patentable hardware. The software itself is just "using the device for exactly what it was built for and no more".

There's no difference in applying that software to make use of additional ports once the hardware was built to allow that already-known task then it is to applying a math formula to a calculator!

And a patent on the "process" of "enter 2+2= into the device and read the display to find out the result" should never - ever - be patentable subject matter.

The very act is the reverse of the exchange that is supposed to exist for a patent:

    It takes knowledge already disseminated to the public and wraps it into a Monopoly grant!
The exchange is supposed to be:
    Disseminating knowledge to the public that the public doesn't have in exchange for a temporary Monopoly grant!


1: You consider the idea to have software ports novel. I consider the idea to have software ports obvious once the hardware was adapted to allow for a concept already known!

To take that a step further, I'd say once the public learned you can take any informational process and automate it via the means of a computer - any application of software (even on physical processes yet to come where the designers realize they're just processing information) are blindingly obvious!

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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