Software Patent Institute

I saw this recently and thought it might be of interest to some people
on the list with strong feelings about IP. -S.?



Software Patent Institute
c/o Industrial Tech Inst.
2901 Hubbard St./ PO Box 1485
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1485
(313) 769-4083
Fax: 313-769-4064
spi@iti.org

SPI "folklore" database

The SPI is now operating, and we are asking the software community to
help us build, our "folklore" database by sharing with everyone the
concepts and techniques which they find so familiar, but which the US
Patent and Trademark Office generally cannot identify as prior art,
since they lack any specific reference to the technique in question. We
must help the USPTO do its job better, so that patents are not granted
for techniques that have already been invented but were lost in the
"folklore" prior to the creation of our SPI folklore database.

[There's more to the letter, but I just wanted to give an idea. Contact
them for more information if you want. -S.]


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