Judge Invalidates Software Patent, Citing Bilski 252
bfwebster writes "US District Court Judge Andrew Gilford (Central District of California) granted a summary judgment motion in DealerTrack v. Huber et al., finding DealerTrack's patent (US 7,181,427) — for an automated credit application processing system — invalid due to the recent In re Bilski court decision that requires a patent to either involve 'transformation' or 'a specific machine.' According to Judge Gilford's ruling, DealerTrack 'appears to concede that the claims of the '427 Patent do not meet the "transformation" prong of the Bilski test.' He then applied the 'specific machine' test and noted that, post-Bilski the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences has ruled several times that 'claims reciting the use of general purpose processors or computers do not satisfy the [Bilski] test.' Judge Gilford analyzes the claims of the '427 patent, notes that they state that the 'machine' involved could be a 'dumb terminal' and a 'personal computer,' and then concludes: 'None of the claims of the '427 Patent require the use of a "particular machine," and the patent is thus invalid under Bilski.' DealerTrack apparently plans to appeal the ruling. Interesting times ahead."
Re:Similar to Donald Knuth's Logic (Score:5, Funny)
THERE was his mistake...
If Europe leads the way in this, I expect many Americans would want to emigrate so that they could continue to innovate in peace
He told them if they did it, they'd be up to their asses in Americans! Hell, I wouldn't do it either, and I *AM* an American.
Foiled again! (Score:5, Funny)
Define equal (Score:3, Funny)
The only people who think otherwise don't know what math is. It's like trying to claim that 1 != 1.
It depends on how you define !=. In Python, 1 == 1, and 1 == 1.0, but 1 != True, and 1 != "1". In PHP, however, 1 == 1, 1 == 1.0, 1 == True, and 1 == "1" (in fact, 0 == any string that can't be converted to an integer), but there is another pair of operators === and !== that strictly compare both value and type: 1 === 1, 1 !== True, and 1 !== "1" like in Python, but also 1 !== 1.0.
Re:Similar to Donald Knuth's Logic (Score:4, Funny)
Any combination of algorithms in software is itself an algorithm. Knuth isn't arguing obviousness or novelty; he's arguing that software isn't patentable subject matter at all, no matter how non-obvious or novel it may be.
<tounge-in-cheek>
But that's absurd! How will mathematicians have motivation to pursue their business if they can't patent the results!?!?!?!
</tounge-in-cheek>