IBM says software patents drive OSS development
zoobab 18 Aug 2009 14:29
In its Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court on the Bilski case, IBM is arguing that
patent protection has promoted the free sharing of source code […] which has fueled the explosive growth of open source software development.
IBM also argue that the machine-or-tranformation test allow software to be patented, and that:
software patent protection provides significant economic, technological, and societal benefits.
IBM also "finds alarming decisions in the wake of Bilski concluding that software is excluded from patentable subject matter" making references to the BPAI decisions on Ex Parte Altman. IBM also says that they are "committed to ensuring that such technology [software] is and remains patentable"."