[ossig] Bending the Malaysian Patent law to allow software patents.

[jason chong <jcvw75@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am in a bit of a depressive mood lately. Recently I've been hearing
claims of certain companies successfully 'patenting' certain process
part of their software locally, and hearing someone have patented the
concept of 'software' itself in Malaysia. Now, I am involved in a
particular project where before I am even done with the prototype, my
'friend' claims he's already prepared and know which lawyer friends of
his to contact, to patent the 'software' and business process we're
involved in. Now I understand why I am being rushed to design a clear
business process flow. I've already warned that I will not tolerate
artificial pressures that will interfere with my development and yet
the marketroid/business heads continues to pressure me. They couldn't
have done anything worse to provoke me than to shove software patent
ideas and rushed deadlines/pressure down my throat. 

My questions will be.

1. Who and why are the lawyers claiming they can patent the software?

2. How broad is Malaysia's patent law that it can be misintrepreted to sneak in algorithms/processes that involves software ?

3. I know business process cannot be patented in Malaysia, but the real
question is, who is there to make sure that the Malaysian Patent law
guidelines are enforced, and who is in charge of reviewing the patent
applications?  Is this a process that is opened to abuse due to
our inherent flaw in the system and culture of Malaysian politics ?
(you know what I mean)
http://www.kpdnhep.gov.my/view.php?dbIndex=0&website_id=1&id=105

4. Are the business/proprietary/corporate/monopoly entity in Malaysia
already sneakily abusing the Patent law to bend it to their favor to
include software patents? (not explicitly but I don't know how, if
possible some of these people are able to use the generic Patent Laws
in Malaysia to cover their software)


We need to expose this RIGHT now and I think the OSS movement NEEDS a lawyer who is capable of interpreting these laws.
We need to sieve through the approved Patents in Malaysia and filter out dubious patents granted that smacks of software patent.
We need to identify who are the people/groups/companies involved in
perversing the Patent law to their own advantage and we need to find
out if these so called lawyers truly can deliver successful patent
applications(software and business processes) to the applicants at only
3000-4000 ringgit.