Re: About Computer Software and Patents

>IMHO, patent law should NOT apply to software at all! I think that copyright
>provides more than adequate (if too long) protection. The added protection
>such as covering independent origination is too smothering when applied to
>software, as are many of the other patent rules.
>
>Sincerely
>Henry Manaster

I concur with Henry. The case law on "look and feel" has already confused the software industry enough as it is. If the Application Program Interface with the user (the "look and feel") cannot be replicated, and that is what makes the software user friendly, then the courts have basically blocked fair competetion/trade.

I consider there to be a big difference between similar in function, and "I copied your code".

This has been true in the hardware engineering realm, where someone can design a processor which does the same thing as another processor without knowing the internals of the processor. Consider Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrex work in designing Intel compatible processors and bringing competetion to the marketplace, with the expected result on prices. The approach there is to engineer to the "look and feel"..that is for a given set of input signals, the processor produces a given set of output signals. The "how" is proprietary.

There seems to be a paradox here...

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