And don’t you think for a second that patent law changes could not potentially affect how OSS works in the future!

Experts say the U.S. is far too permissive when granting patented status to technologies that many say are “obvious.” Reformers are working to change that through the Patent Act of 2005, introduced in Congress this year. Ironically, in the European Union Parliament, a battle is raging over a directive that pits the European Patent Office and Microsoft, among others, against open source software proponents and small technology houses in Europe. If the software patent measure gains a majority vote tomorrow, the EU patent system will become much more like that of the current United States system.

In a speech before the House of Representatives on June 8th, Congressman Howard Berman said the Patent Act contains a number of provisions designed to “deter abusive practices by unscrupulous patent holders,” mostly in the software industry.

Non-obviousness is supposed to be the foundation of the patent system. No invention should be granted a patent if it doesn’t contain the “aha” factor - the element of surprise that grabs experts in the technology, causing them to exclaim, “wow! I never thought of that!” Yet, over and over again, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants patents for algorithms that leave software developers scratching their heads and saying, “that one, we already knew.” [Read the rest]