Timeline

For current opportunities and dangers, see Current events.

For links to news, past and present, see news links.

2010

(See also: news 2010)

• August 12th: Oracle sues Google for infringing Java patents
• May 12th: European Patent Office concludes swpat review, takes no decision: EPO EBoA referral G3-08
• April 30th: Red Hat and Novell win against Acacia in court: Acacia v. Red Hat and Novell (2010, USA)
• March 2nd: Apple v. HTC (2010, USA)‎
• March 1st: Major ACTA document leaked: ACTA-6437-10.pdf as text
• February 22nd: Xerox Corp v. Google Inc et al (2010, USA)

2009

(See also: news 2009)

• October: Nokia v. Apple (2010, USA)
• September: Open Invention Network buys 22 Microsoft patents (related: Buying harmful patents)
• August 11th, USA: Microsoft loses the i4i v. Microsoft case appeal, having to pay $290 million
• July 2nd, New Zealand: deadline for comments regarding dangerous proposed Patents Bill
• March: European Patent Office calls for comment on swpats: Briefs submitted to EPO EBoA G3-08
• Eolas v. many defendants (2009, USA)
• Fotomedia Technologies v. many defendants (USA, 2009)
• Software Tree v. Red Hat (2009, USA)
• U.S. Ethernet Innovations v. many defendants (2009, USA)
• Uniloc v. Microsoft (2009, USA)

2008

(See also: news 2008)

• October: in re Bilski ruling in the USA narrow the scope for patenting software and business methods
• Symbian v. Comptroller General (2008, UK) - bad
• Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft (2008, USA)
• Microsoft v. TomTom (2008, USA)
• NetApp v. Sun (2008, USA)
• Trend Micro v. Barracuda (2008, USA)
• Quanta v. LGE (2008, USA)

2007

(See also: news 2007)

• October 7th: Acacia files suit against Red Hat and Novell: Acacia v. Red Hat and Novell (2010, USA)
• Fujitsu et. al. v. Netgear (2007, USA)

2006

(See also: news 2006)

• October: Aerotel v. Telco, United Kingdom ruling
• August: UK patent office rejects a patent because it's a software idea
• Microsoft vs AT&T, 2006 (in the USA)
• Novell-Microsoft patent deals
• Visto v. Seven (2006, USA)
• Z4 v. Microsoft and Autodesk (2006, USA)

2005

(See also: news 2005)

• July: European Parliament rejects the EU software patents directive
• Justsystem v. Matsushita (2005, Japan) - a software patent upheld, then overturned

2004

(See also: news 2004)

• September: Rethinking the European ICT agenda, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• April 14th: Software Patent Legislation Benchmarking Conference
• Burst v. Microsoft (2004, USA)
• Eolas v. Microsoft (2004, USA)

2003

(See also: news 2003)

October 28th: US FTC report on innovation, US Federal Trade Commission

1999

• AT&T Corp. v. Excel Communications Inc. (1999, USA)
• State Street v. Signature Group (1999, USA)

1998

• A 1998 UK conference report that mentions political pressures for the extension of swpats into Europe

1994

• USA: In re Lowry
• 1994 USPTO software patent hearings

1993

• Stac v. Microsoft - MS guilty of wilful infringement of a software patent

1991

• December 13th: A software patent upheld by a court in Australia

1980s

• 1989: Founding of the League for Programming Freedom.
• 1981: Diamond v. Diehr (1981, USA)

1970s

• Parker v. Flook (1978, USA)
• Gottschalk v. Benson (1972, USA)

1960s

• 1966: USA: President's Commission on the Patent System

1950s

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