Source: The Atlantic

Summary: Algorithms being patented in the United States a growing trend prior to Alice ruling, which can invalidate many or most of them

WE often highlight the danger of following the US model of patenting, where abstract ideas and mathematics become eligible for a patent monopoly, not physical inventions.

The chart above speaks volumes (it's part of a broader chart going further back in time). As the accompanying article put it: "The overall story, Bhattacharya told me, follows the shift from "atoms to bits"—from the loud world of trains and cars in the 19th century to the invisible life of software. But within that meta-narrative (and this is where the colors come in handy), you can see moments where one industry dominated the patent literature—like chemistry (black) in the 1930s, medicine (red) in the 1980s, and computers (green) in the last few decades." ⬆

"The day that the software sector forms a clear front against software patents, as pharma does for a unitary patent system… will be the day our cause comes close to winning." —Pieter Hintjens, Fosdem07 Interview