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Even if there are technical drawings of patented hardware in it ?
Edited 2011-06-15 12:52 UTC
Anybody who considers themselves a professional software developer will tell you that software is designed also.
You are confusing the design of something with the copying of bits. The patent protects the design, copyright protects the bits.
But maybe your dogmatic view is too basic to understand the distinction.
How about being a professional(as in being paid to do their work) software developer for the last 14 years and working The Big software? Does that meet your criteria? Maybe add to that, actually working on patents that have been filed and granted by USPTO.
And I still know that software patents are absurd. Software design is very much generic in all software and is based on too much prior art, that it must not be patented.
Today, software differs only in particular algorithms, everything else has been done over and over(talking about software design).
The last truly innovative patent I personally reviewed, was a case of "Mmm... I remembered that formula from mathematical analysis courses in the university. It was created to solve my problem, so I used it and here's the patent application"




Member since:
2005-06-29
Software is written, and source code is protected by copyright.
Hardware is designed and constructed, and is protected by patents.
Both are artificial, government-granted monopolies. There is ZERO reason why software should be covered by BOTH copyright and patents. You can't patent the contents of a book, now, can you?
This is all pretty basic stuff.