Canada's Federal Court of Appeal To Rule On Business Methods 34
ciaran_o_riordan writes "After last month's unfortunate ruling by Canada's Federal Court that Amazon's 1-click shopping idea could be patented, the Commissioner of Patents and the Attorney General of Canada have filed notice (PDF) to Amazon.com, Inc. (respondent) that an 'appeal will be heard by the [Federal Court of Appeal] at a time and place fixed by the Judicial Administrator,' probably Ottawa. This case, called Canada's Bilski, has been in the works since Amazon filed their patent application all the way back in 1998. Just like Bilski, the object of this case is what subject matter is and isn't patentable — a question which will create crucial case law, making participation in this case important. Anyone looking for more background, particularly those interested in helping to prepare an amicus brief for this case, is welcome at ESP's wiki page."
It's just so broken... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's just so broken... (Score:3, Insightful)
why the editorial? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's just so broken... (Score:3, Insightful)
It encourages innovation by, in a legal sense, forcing developers to come up with new ways to accomplish given tasks.
Granted, this theory, while good, falls short of the goal. There may be a thousand different routes you can take to get to Disneyland from your house, but only one of them will be the fastest, and most of them will be ridiculous. If lawyers and law makers understood this sort of logic, then we'd be in a much better place, now.