You have confused me with another commentator. I have pointed at nothing other
than the UKIPO, I do not know anything about any Halliburton v Smith so cannot
possibly comment on this issue. I do not deny that the UK has some software
patents, that is why I posted the link to the UKIPO official guidance on the
issue, and as the guidance explains this area is muddied by case law presumably
where the UK Courts (Jury's) have got it wrong (personal opinion of
course).
The main issue with UK patents, to my understanding, is
apparently the term 'a program for a computer is not regarded as a patentable
invention to the extent that the patent or application relates to the program as
such' in the patent act 1977 , where the term 'as such' is suitably ambiguous to
allow those with large wallets to get a hook into the system.
As for the
software radio, there are plenty of patents worldwide covering these, and they
do not require a computer to operate, (your Mobile (Cell) phone is an example of
a software defined radio, as would be a digital satellite TV receiver).
And
finally, the UK courts found the patent for the 'slide to unlock' feature to be
invalid. See PJ's Groklaw article dated July 4th 2012 Another Spanking for Apple From Judge Posner
My
advice,if you have any software patent problems is ignore every thing you read
here, and seek the advice of an IP Lawyer. (Oh. and dig deep...) [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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