Mathematics Cannot be Patented. Case Dismissed | Hacker News Reader

Mathematics Cannot be Patented. Case Dismissed

rackspace.com

125 pointsgrimey2716 comments

I think what really happened is that the Eastern Texas court district used this case to show legitimacy. They'll still eagerly allow less ridiculous but still ridiculous lawsuits from NPE plaintiffs. I see Eastern Texas a bit like Somalia. I imagine patent trolls cause $millions annually to drop into the area. Patent trolling is effectively an industry there, upon which many jobs and pensions depend.

Now the lawyers and judges just need to realise that "mathematical" != "numeric" and we're home free.

So you can't patent math ... but certain numbers can still be illegal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime

I didn't know about that... that is insane. DRM has gone too far.

Same discussion on another thread (currently on HN frontpage): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5455869

Thank God, we can finally implement cryptography without worrying about being sued! Well probably not. Or something. All software is math anyway, but I doubt that courts will care about that detail.

If all software is math, and math is speech(?), does it make sense to put software under "copyright" instead of patents?

As somebody who my name on a bunch of software patents - software should not be patentable either.

Awesome. Thanks RedHat and Rackspace for standing up to patent trolls and defending the true innovators.

It occurs to me that what is needed is a possibly grass roots level approach to the patent problem. If ever there was a good use of the Rico Act this would be the one. And know I'm not a lawyer but how is PT (patent trolling) any different from the mob activities that Rico was designed to help eliminate. This would among other things allow asset forfeiture before the fact---something that would be particularly satisfying in this instance :) Just sayin/daydreamin ...

> And know I'm not a lawyer but how is PT (patent trolling) any different from the mob activities that Rico was designed to help eliminate

Patent trolling doesn't generally kill people or traffic drugs.

That's true. Rico has been extended to handle things far outside it's original scope though, so taking the extended definition I could see it work.

Diverting resources to fend off million dollar lawsuits certainly could kill people. It's not only interfering with defendants, but the court system must also redirect resources away from other activities to handle these cases.

If nothing else, hundreds of thousands of hours of effort go into cases like these. Patent reform wouldn't necessarily save a single life, but it would clearly save hundreds of hours of life for thousands of people.

Of course, none of that above relates to RICO

The RICO act pertains to threats of illegal force. Filing a lawsuit to vindicate legal rights is not illegal force, by definition. Filing a totally frivolous lawsuit can get an attorney and his client sanctioned, but while something like this may seem frivolous to you it's not legally frivolous (they have a validly-issued patent that has arguably been infringed).

Already tried ... http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/patent/manufacturers-atte...

How does Uniloc honestly sustain itself as a business?

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