Computer Ethics, Fall 2020, Mondays

Pharmaceuticals

Software

Essentially every software implementation idea is a straightforward application of standard software engineering. But software ideas can typically be patented: a new way to do something, or a feature nobody thought of before, is harder to write off as intrinsically straightforward.

Examples:

• XOR-mouse patent
• natural-order-recalculation patent for spreadsheets
• RSA encryption
• Unix setuid bit on executable files, for privilege escalation
• BT hyperlink patent (example of a bad patent)
• Steir patent
• E-data patent on a sales kiosk that becomes a home computer
• LZW compression
• MP3 audio compression
• i4i patent on markup tags
• NTP/Campana patent on wireless email
• Apple slide-to-unlock patent

Many computer ideas are obvious once the appropriate context is created; for example, once browsers are commonplace, it is obvious that running applets within browsers is useful, given that running one program under control of another was already established (MS OLE, etc)

Here are the practical grounds for appealing someone else's patent

1. Find prior art, proving someone else had the idea before the patent filing date
2. Show that the patent is obvious by showing it is a straightforward application of a known algorithm (Flook)
3. Show that the patent is obvious by showing it is a straightforward combination of prior-art ideas (KSR v Teleflex)
4. Show that the patent is obvious by showing it represents doing on a computer a process that was well-known without computers (Alice)
5. Show that the patent is "abstract" (hard, as the standard for "abstract" is not clear; Bilski)

What about the XOR-mouse patent?

Benson / Flook / Diehr

KSR v Teleflex / Bilski / Alice / Heartland v Kraft

Crime

Hacking and the CFAA