Timeline

From en.swpat.org

Votes, rulings, and other past events that changed the patentability of software.

For current opportunities and dangers, see Current events.

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

[edit] 2010

(see also: news 2010)

• 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)

[edit] 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
• 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 2007

(see also: news 2007)

• Fujitsu et. al. v. Netgear (2007, USA)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 2005

(see also: news 2005)

• Justsystem v. Matsushita (2005, Japan) - a software patent upheld, then overturned

[edit] 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)

[edit] 2003

(see also: news 2003)

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

[edit] 2002

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2000

[edit] 1999

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

[edit] 1998

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

[edit] 1997

[edit] 1996

[edit] 1995

[edit] 1994

• USA: In re Lowry

[edit] 1993

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

[edit] 1992

[edit] 1991

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

[edit] 1990

[edit] 1989

• Founding of the League for Programming Freedom.

[edit] 1988

[edit] 1987

[edit] 1986

[edit] 1985

[edit] 1984

[edit] 1983

[edit] 1982

[edit] 1981

• Diamond v. Diehr (1981, USA)

[edit] 1980

[edit] 1979

[edit] 1978

• Parker v. Flook (1978, USA)