Software Patent Debate Divides Companies at U.S. Appeals Court
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A U.S. appeals court specializing in patent law grappled today with questions about when computer programs should be eligible for legal protection in a case that’s divided the judges and the software industry.
Ten judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington heard arguments about how to distinguish software innovations from programs that computerize unpatentable ideas, seeking what Circuit Judge Pauline Newman called “the point where one moves from the abstract to the concrete.”