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Red Hat's Amicus Brief in Bilski, as text - Why Patents Harm Open Source

By Pamela Jones et al.

Here, as text, is Red Hat's amicus brief [PDF] in In re Bilski, which you can read about in depth in the prior article. This Red Hat brief explains so well why software patents clash with the Open Source development model that I thought you'd like to have it as text, and placed so you can share it easily with others who may not yet understand. FOSS is also a contributor to the world's economy, it is ubiquitous in use, and it's important to governments and businesses around the world, Red Hat points out. Therefore, it potentially matters a great deal that the US courts get this issue clearly presented. I think you'll agree that Red Hat has done so in this brief.

There are three main arguments:

• Abstract ideas are not patentable
• Abstract ideas don't get patentable just because there's a computer involved
• Both State Street Bank and AT&T v. Excel clash with binding Supreme Court precedent (Red Hat notes particularly Gottschalk v. Benson) and should therefore be reconsidered and modified.

Full post as published by Groklaw on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).