Sanity From the 1st Post-Bilski Decision from BPAI: In Re Proudler

07-14-2010

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Sanity From the 1st Post-Bilski Decision from BPAI: In Re Proudler

Look at this, will you? The first decision from the Board of Patents Appeals and Interferences post-Bilski to reference that US Supreme Court decision, in In Re Proudler [PDF], a ruling rejecting HP's application for a software patent, setting forth a rule stating, as I read it, as saying software is not patentable because it's an abstraction:

Laws of nature, abstract ideas, and natural phenomena are excluded from patent protection. Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. at 185. A claim that recites no more than software, logic or a data structure (i.e., an abstraction) does not fall within any statutory category. In re Warmerdam, 33 F.3d 1354, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 1994). Significantly, "Abstract software code is an idea without physical embodiment." Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp., 550 U.S. 437, 449 (2007). The unpatentability of abstract ideas was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, No. 08-964, 2010 WL 2555192 (June 28, 2010).

This is not the last word, I'm sure, as HP can certainly try to reword. But don't you find this encouraging? I do. And that's why I wanted it in our permanent record of the Bilski case and its aftermath.

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avc_cache_stats(3) SELinux API documentation avc_cache_stats(3) NAME
avc_cache_stats, avc_av_stats, avc_sid_stats - obtain userspace SELinux AVC statistics. SYNOPSIS
#include <selinux/selinux.h> #include <selinux/avc.h> void avc_av_stats(void); void avc_sid_stats(void); void avc_cache_stats(struct avc_cache_stats *stats); DESCRIPTION
The userspace AVC maintains two internal hash tables, one to store security ID's and one to cache access decisions. avc_av_stats and avc_sid_stats produce log messages indicating the status of the access decision and SID tables, respectively. The mes- sages contain the number of entries in the table, number of hash buckets and number of buckets used, and maximum number of entries in a single bucket. avc_cache_stats populates a structure whose fields reflect cache activity: struct avc_cache_stats { unsigned entry_lookups; unsigned entry_hits; unsigned entry_misses; unsigned entry_discards; unsigned cav_lookups; unsigned cav_hits; unsigned cav_probes; unsigned cav_misses; }; entry_lookups Number of queries made. entry_hits Number of times a decision was found in the aeref argument. entry_misses Number of times a decision was not found in the aeref argument. entry_discards Number of times a decision was not found in the aeref argument and the aeref argument was non-NULL. cav_lookups Number of cache lookups. cav_hits Number of cache hits. cav_misses Number of cache misses. cav_probes Number of entries examined while searching the cache. NOTES
When the cache is flushed as a result of a call to avc_reset or a policy change notification, the statistics returned by avc_cache_stats are reset to zero. The SID table, however, is left unchanged. When a policy change notification is received, a call to avc_av_stats is made before the cache is flushed. AUTHOR
Eamon Walsh <ewalsh@tycho.nsa.gov> SEE ALSO
avc_init(3), avc_has_perm(3), avc_context_to_sid(3), avc_add_callback(3) selinux(8) 27 May 2004 avc_cache_stats(3)

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