Patent Absurdity

Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system is a half-hour film about software patents, published on the 16^{th of April, 2010.}

The issues raised

Roughly in chronological order:

• Bilksi
• Silly patents - many would call Bilski's patent, and others mentioned, trivial or silly
• Business method patents (Bilski's patent is a business method, not a software idea)
• Software is math (Ben Klemens explains how a "match making" patent, US6,735,568 is just math)
• USA#Legislation
• US Supreme Court
• Analogies - if symphonies had been patented...
• Software progress happens without patents

The court cases mentioned

• Diamond v. Diehr (1981, USA)

The cast

• James Bessen
• Dan Bricklin
• Peter Brown
• Mishi Choudhary
• Ben Klemens
• Timothy B. Lee
• Eben Moglen
• Ciarán O'Riordan
• Dan Ravicher
• Karen Sandler
• Richard Stallman
• Jesse Vincent
• Mark Webbink

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• List of recordings and transcripts
• Boston swpat conference 2006 videos
• Audio-video patents
• Ogg Theora

External links

• The Bilski hearing transcript, as text

Reviews

• Darkness Visible: Making Patent Absurdity Patent, by Glyn Moody