Software Patents: Bilski Case before the US Supreme Court
The Bilski Case is to be heard by the US Supreme Court. The case deals with the patent eligibility of marketable ideas and will, according to expert opinion, have great influence on the patenting of software.
On October 30. 2008, a Court of Appeal handed down a ruling on Bilski that since then has been much discussed. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw, founders of the Weatherwise company, wanted in 1997 to protect their ideas on the processing of weather risk data.
The US Patent Board refused to recognize the patent because in their opinion, the idea did not rely on technology and was merely a mental process. Patent lawyers quickly saw the similarities with the situation involving free and open software and attorneys from the US Linux distro Red Hat presented the courts of appeal with a brief of amicus curiae.
Now, after a long legal battle involving numerous appeals, the highest court in the land will decide if patents can be awarded to, for example, financial products, business principles and Internet transactions. In the latest decision on the Bilski case, IBM took sides against the patenting of business ideas, although the company itself owns many such patents. The consultant company, Accenture and American Express both support the idea.
In his blog, law professor Dennis Crouch presents the held positions of larger organizations and companies regarding the Bilski case. His blog shows that companies like Microsoft and Dell want to see patents closely linked to technological utilization, while Yahoo would like the patents to be more broadly defined. The hearing will begin in October. A result is expected early 2010.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.