Summary: The Indian patent office reaffirms its commitment to banning software patents in spite of growing pressure from companies that are not even Indian (and their law firms)

THE situation in India matters a great deal because India is probably the world's largest software maker (depending on how it's measured). Software patents are not allowed in India, which is absolutely commendable and is the correct approach. Just ask any software developer (anywhere)...

According to several articles in English-speaking media from India, the India Patent Office had "software patent rules reissued" or "reissued norms for software patenting" (a lot of articles about this are identical but were published across several English-speaking networks).

"So despite of all that pressure and in spite of the loopholes, Indian examiners do their job."Manny Schecter‏, who has been pushing for software patents on behalf of IBM, took note of it and wrote: "India has released new guidelines for examining computer-related inventions for patentability http://www.ipindia.nic.in/newsdetail.htm?"

But don't expect much to have changed. As this recent article put it: "The Patent Office raised objections stating that the method is a mere software application..."

"Just a buzzword like "innovation" is meaningless and considering IBM's use of software patents against FOSS we should watch quite closely what Schecter‏ et al do in India."So despite of all that pressure and in spite of the loopholes, Indian examiners do their job. They cull out the garbage.

"The #patent system should promote #innovation for all technologies without discrimination," Schecter‏ wrote not too long ago, alluding to software patents in India, but it didn't take long for FFII's President to respond with, "what if it does not? Plus there are no metrics for innovation."

"Later this month we will show that Schecter‏ and his highly controversial friends (like Watchtroll) do immense damage to the US patent system as well.""Innovation" in IBM's terminopoly just means "IBM making a profit." Just a buzzword like "innovation" is meaningless and considering IBM's use of software patents against FOSS we should watch quite closely what Schecter‏ et al do in India. Later this month we will show that Schecter‏ and his highly controversial friends (like Watchtroll) do immense damage to the US patent system as well. They still promote software patents in India and in the US, as we noted in a post last Sunday. Will they ever succeed? Not if the population stands up to them... ⬆