[Fsf-friends] A Dismal Report in the Hindu
Vijay Kumar
vijaykumar@bravegnu.org
Sat Mar 26 21:54:38 IST 2005
Ramanraj K <ramanraj.k@gmail.com> writes:
> amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957. The mis-application of patent
> law to cover computer programs would have been a serious violation of
> our international obligations and India could have been arraigned
> before the WTO for breach. The illegitimate practice of granting
> patents for computer programs is notably present in US, Japan and a
> few European countries. India should complain to the WTO and obtain a
> ruling asking these countries to comply with the TRIPS treaty and
> update their laws.
I am confused. Section 5, article 27 of the TRIPS agreement says
1. Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3, patents shall
be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in
all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an
inventive step and are capable of industrial application.
Then how could patents for software ideas be an illegitimate practice
under the TRIPS agreement? Doesn't this just mean that software is
both copyrightable and patentable? What am I missing?
Vijay
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