Software Patent Watch

Many sources are reporting on Microsoft’s pending U.S. patent application for “a verb conjugating system.” In response to reporter inquiries, PUBPAT’s Executive Director, Dan Ravicher, said:

This is just another example of how completely out of control our patent system is. (Another example I heard today on the radio is that Allstate’s program of offering good drivers discounts on their auto insurance is “patent pending”.) Not only have our pro-patent courts and law makers expanded patent eligibility to include literally anything, including conjugating verbs, but they’ve also said that doing something that was already known with the use of a computer can make it a new - and thus patentable - thing.

In the end, though, this specific application merely manifests Microsoft’s use of current patent law to their maximum benefit and, as such, they can’t be solely or even primarily to blame for its ridiculousness. In fact, Microsoft itself has been pushing for some reforms of the patent law, all of which has been virtually quashed by the pharmaceutical industry for whom patent law in this country has been and is written. Hopefully, at some point in the future, patent law will take into account its effect on all of the American people and begin to succumb to some elements of reasonableness and fairness.

The complete article is at eWeek.