Re: [d@DCC] Current worldwide status of Software Patent policy.

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: General Discussion <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 10:50:54 -0500 (EST)

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Chris Palmer wrote:

> I suspect, Russel, that you will find a great tidal wave of irrelevant
> material. Where the lawyers whine that there have been no cases decided in
> couirt, so no one really knows what the law is.

  The interesting thing is that, like Legal protection for TPM, the word
from Industry Canada is that Canada does not grant software patents.  
Part of the review will be to try to determine what that means, given many
of us live under the assumption that Canada does (or more specifically,
that Canada isn't clear on whether it supports the US...err.. software
patents), and we just hope to not step on one of these "land-mines".


  Clarity needs to be brought to this question.  If it is deemed that 
Software Patents do more harm to the economy than good, then this needs to 
be clarified in our patent act by parliament.


  I have been getting a lot of links and references, most of which can be 
categorized as opinions on the issue.  Trying to get at the facts seems 
like it will be hard as nobody seems to know for certain what the facts 
are, with different people offering entirely contradictory summaries.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses, 
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