We
looked at some amicus briefs submitted to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in
In Re Bilski, so we have now a good idea of what the pro-patent forces think. Then, as an antidote, we turned that page and read the
letter that Donald Knuth submitted to the European Patent Office, expressing the view that mathematical ideas, or algorithms, should not be patented.
Now, let's look at some of the other
amicus briefs that were
submitted to the
European Patent Office, or EPO, in the G3/08 case, being
now referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeals. I want to show you in particular
Red Hat's submission, which I have as text for you, and a snippet or two from a couple of other briefs submitted by FOSS community members. This is part of our continuing conversation on whether software should be patentable.
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