The Software IP Report
Director Kappos Comments on Software Patents
By Charles Bieneman
Categories: Software Patents, The Software IP Report
United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Kappos recently gave a speech about software patents to the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. Director Kappos squarely addressed the question “should we treat software differently than hardware when it comes to patentability?” His answer: “No. Absolutely not.” That said, Director Kappos acknowledged software patent quality problems, and software industry debate about software patents. He addressed various ways in which he believes software patent issues have been, and are being, addressed.
I urge you to click the above link and read the entire address, which is posted on the USPTO website. However, the main themes of the talk (with which many people undoubtedly will disagree) were that (1) the USPTO has improved software patent quality, which is relatively high and (2) efforts to further improve software patent quality, such as the America Invents Act and USPTO examination procedure improvements, need to be given time to work.