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A comment on No patent if invention lies only in computer program, says Indian Patent Office. Parent comment

Re:No patent if invention lies only in computer program, say... by jessriedel on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:06PM (#11163711)
I largely agree. However, I'm not sure I agree with you that it's infeasible to prevent pure software patents since folks will just include the entire computer in a description of software. If there's nothing new about the hardware, that part of the patent can just be rejected. If I submit a patent for a better mousetrap that includes a description of the house, won't the patent examiner just reject the application, or instruct that that part be ignore, or whatever the procedure is?
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Re:No patent if invention lies only in computer program, say... by bobajeff on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:29PM (#11163816)
If the whole computer is included in the patent then doesn't that limit the applicability of such a patent somewhat?
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Re:No patent if invention lies only in computer program, say... by kazinator on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:35PM (#11163854)
Exactly; defendants in an infringement suit can easily come up with the argument that all they did was write software for a programmable, general-purpose computer, and therefore their work can only violate a software patent, and no such thing can be valid in the land.
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Re:No patent if invention lies only in computer program, say... by kazinator on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:31PM (#11163834)
If there is nothing new about the hardware and that part of the patent is rejected, then it will hopefully be obvious that what remains is a software patent, which is rejected ex facie.
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