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There is? | 354 comments | Create New Account
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There is?
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 24 2012 @ 04:47 PM EST
But all the building blocks of a lot of hardware inventions might not be
patented/able in their own right but when combined together in a certain way
then patent protection for that way (of combining them) may be right.

I've no qualms about the bits and pieces of software /TOGETHER/ being patented
as long as it's not the vague Input → output description that is
patented, but the way the bits and pieces are put together.

If I can put together the building blocks of software /in a different way/ to
your patent, then I should be allowed to do so; currently with software patents,
I can't.

Or to put it another way, current software patents patent a block box with
inputs and output specified, but rarely any detail of the contents of the black
box.

Software patents only make sense if they define the contents of the black box so
that anyone can put together /exactly/ the black box of the invention. If I can
put together another black box, the contents of which are different to the
patented black box but which takes the same inputs and creates the same output,
then I should not be in breach of your patent.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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