Red Hat Files New Brief in Software Patent Case

“That vendor was Red Hat, which really comes as no surprise.
With the veiled threats of software patent enforcement coming from
Redmond, and the not-so-veiled threat of any one of a number of
patent trolls getting ready to use a purchased patent to pursue
litigation, Red Hat would get a huge benefit from the elimination
of software patents. Of course, so will everyone else writing code
today.

“Here’s what’s happening: in 2008, the Federal appeals court
upheld a Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) ruling that Bernard
Bilski’s method of risk assessment of bad weather through
commodities trading was not patent-eligible under Section 101 of
the Patent act.

“The Court made up a test to benchmark if claimed ideas like
this could actually be patentable. The idea has to either be tied
to a particular machine or apparatus or transform something into a
different state or thing. The Court stated in its ruling that this
should be the only applicable test.”

Complete Story