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I don't feel as optimistic as the author does; yes, the SCOTUS is currently examining what may turn into a landmark case on the patent system. However, this is
by sabat 17y ago
I don't feel as optimistic as the author does; yes, the SCOTUS is currently examining what may turn into a landmark case on the patent system. However, this is a seemingly addled Supreme Court, given some of its recent decisions -- and many of the members are the same ones who didn't buy Larry Lessig's assertion that copyright terms, currently the life of an author + 90 years, is far beyond the constitution's "limited time" requirement.
- dminor 17y agoYes, but many of the questions raised by the justices were skeptical of patenting abstract ideas. I think the consensus is that Bilski will lose, and the real question is how narrow the Supreme Court's decision will be.
- gthank 17y agoThe current term satisfies the letter of the law, even though it seems pretty clear it's not what the founders had in mind. Given that, the deck was stacked against Lessig.
- dantheman 17y agoYou don't understand Lessig's argument. The problem is retroactively extending copyright -- that is where they made the mistake. They ruled that it was up to congress to decide how long copyright was and as long as it was for a limited time it was ok -- this is the correct judgement. Hopefully they'll have a similar ruling -- if we want patents to apply to business methods and software we will have to explicitly pass a law to allow it.