Re: what does a patent restrict?

On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Mark Lemley <mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> My "legal fiction" remark was directed towards the Alappat court's
> statement that programming a general purpose computer with a new
> piece of software "creates a new machine."

As I pointed out elsewhere though, this is only a legal fiction if you view it from one direction. However, the Allapat court (and I) seem to view it more from a black box point of view, where the black box containing the software acts differently than the black box without the software. I personally find this to be a fairly strong argument for patentability.

> I quite agree with Andrew Greenberg that the law has moved beyond
> that point, and that in 1999 it does not matter what form (machine,
> manufacture, process) a computer program claim takes.

Which you can find in AT&T v. Excel, a recent CAFC case.

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The preceding was not a legal opinion, and is not my employer's.
Original portions Copyright 1999 Bruce E. Hayden,all rights reserved
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Bruce E. Hayden                      bhayden[_at_]acm.org
Phoenix, Arizona                     bhayden[_at_]ieee.org
                                     bhayden[_at_]copatlaw.com