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

[Uwe Dippel <udippel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

jason chong wrote:
> 
> I am in a bit of a depressive mood lately.

Cheer up !

 > 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.

Firstly, AFAIK, this is not quite true. But many people don't know the 
difference between 'filing' and 'granting'.
Just the opposite: Everyone complains that granting takes too many years 
to achieve after filing in Malaysia.

> My questions will be.
> 
> 1. Who and why are the lawyers claiming they can patent the software?

Those 'Intellectual Property' chaps who feed their families from their 
professional income - like everyone else.
There were quite a few advertisements on the papers recently.

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

The trouble is, that the act (mostly - how should I say - 'reinvented' 
after the European Patent Convention) has explicitly *not* included the 
passage about Software Patents (contrary to the EPC). But the PHIM 
states in its FAQ, that software patents are excluded. In April, when I 
gave a talk, some PHIM people confirmed that so far there has been no 
single *grant* of a software patent in MY.

> 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)

I think you know yourself that anything can be bended to someone's liking.

> 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?

Yes. Let's leave it as that. And probably they'll succeed, because they 
'lobby - help - support'; and they know how to do it. Whereas we have to 
sit and have the same old slides poured over us again and again. Instead 
of chit-chat and nice-talk at the politicians' receptions; what the 
'others' do.
Guess who'll win in the end ? (And here *I* get depressed, so I better 
stop).

Uwe

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