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Bilski: What It Means, Part 1 -- Red Hat on What It Means for FOSS

By Pamela Jones et al.

I know you want me to explain what the recent Bilski decision [PDF] means, because you are writing to me. I've shown you some of the apoplectic reactions from the patent bar. But what does it mean to us, to FOSS?

First, in a simplified nutshell, here is what Bilski means to everyone: You can't get patents any more on a pure mental process. You can no longer patent a process that you can think through all in your mind. In other words, abstract ideas are not patentable. There has to be either a particular machine or a transformation in the process. So pure "ideas" or "mental processes" are over. That means most business methods patents are no longer valid because they are outside the parameters of what is eligible for patenting. In simple terms, it means this:

The End for the stupidest of the stupid patents.

Yay! It means that the tide is turning. There could still be an appeal of Bilski, and even without one, there are ways to chip away at this decision's new standard for patentability, to try to get over the new turnstile, so to speak, and strategies on how to do that have begun already. I've spent the days since the decision issued researching for you, so I can explain Bilski to you. There is too much material for just one article. So, I'll break it up into parts. My purpose is to make sure you understand fully, so you can be helpful with your ideas and so you can explain this issue to others, so they understand what is involved for FOSS. If there are parts you don't understand, ask. If I don't know the answer, I can ask someone.

The most important reaction to Bilski, to me, is Red Hat's, which you can now read in full here. It's the most important to us, because what you and I want to know is: what about FOSS? What does Bilski mean to us? So, in this series of articles on the Bilski ruling, let's start there.

Full post as published by Groklaw on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).