Okay so - this is the challenge: how do we codify that? It's like I'm saying we can look at these, as humans and use our common sense and say "This is reasonable" and "This is not".
Let's look at something I did recently: I came up with an idea for an ORM which doesn't require you to create any boiler plate base classes and uses the primary key structure of your database to intuit how to join tables together.[1]
Do you think that's patentable? I think not and to patent that would be total bullshit. I don't know what prior art exists (I've not seen anything that does this before but then I didn't really look all that hard) but even without prior art patenting this process would seem ludicrous to me because it's like patenting a workflow or a formula.
It's almost like the hardware analogue of that is patenting a way of using something, rather than an actual invention. Is that the distinction? Software patents that are awarded for figuring out how to improve the way we use existing inventions, as opposed to real inventions?
Sorry, I haven't been ignoring you, I've been struggling with how to respond. I think for now I will have to leave it at:
(1) since I'm a patent attorney, looking at your code and advising you on its chances of patentability would constitute legal advice and potentially initiate aspects of an attorney-client relationship outside of any retainer agreement, and I'm not going to do that;
(2) in the off chance that you ever do want to try to patent something that involves software, your future patent attorneys will thank you for starting to train yourself now to get out of the habit of making public posts about how ludicrously unpatentable your work is, no matter how much you might think of any current project at the present moment; and
(3) talk to a good patent attorney of your own, one who spends all her time on patent law subject matter, as soon as possible in the process, which will almost certainly be before you think it should be, about anything and everything you might ever possibly want to patent in the future.
Let's look at something I did recently: I came up with an idea for an ORM which doesn't require you to create any boiler plate base classes and uses the primary key structure of your database to intuit how to join tables together.[1]
Do you think that's patentable? I think not and to patent that would be total bullshit. I don't know what prior art exists (I've not seen anything that does this before but then I didn't really look all that hard) but even without prior art patenting this process would seem ludicrous to me because it's like patenting a workflow or a formula.
It's almost like the hardware analogue of that is patenting a way of using something, rather than an actual invention. Is that the distinction? Software patents that are awarded for figuring out how to improve the way we use existing inventions, as opposed to real inventions?
[1]https://github.com/iaindooley/PluSQL/