PERA Bill in US Senate Strives to Crush Caselaw, Making Patents on Mathematics and Algorithms 'Great Again'
Follow the money
In the US, laws are like a product that companies can purchase (as they habitually do)
With 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Alice (SCOTUS, 2014),it has been a lot simpler to squash software patents for over a decade in the US. But the litigation industry tried bribing politicians to bypass SCOTUS and change laws, fanatically lying about very simple things to compel the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to grant more such patents without qualm. Senators Tillis and Coons have been at it for over half a decade. They're basically paid off politicians who just lobby for the litigation profiteers.
Since journalism about patents (or "Software Patents") is pretty much dead or non-existent in recent years, one might not even know that tomorrow is a key date. As the FFII's President puts it:
The US Senate to set to revive Software Patents with the PERA Bill, with a vote on Thursday, November 14, 2024.A crucial Senate Committee is on the cusp of voting on two bills that would resurrect some of the most egregious software patents and embolden patent trolls. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would dismantle vital safeguards that prohibit software patents on overly broad concepts. If passed, courts would be compelled to approve software patents on mundane activities like mobile food ordering or basic online financial transactions. This would unleash a torrent of vague and overbroad software patents, which would be wielded by patent trolls to extort small businesses and individuals.
The EFF is inviting members of the public to contact their Senators.
As we showed before, the EFF has hardly done anything about patents in recent years. It very seldom even talks about the subject. █