Just went back from today’s roundtable discussion on “IPR Issues and Open Source” hosted by the National 863 Project. It was well attended, with major software companies as well as experts from MII, MOST and the academia. In particular I found the talk by Peking University’s Dr. Zhang most enlightening — they have done extensive research on almost all open source licenses (including CDDL), as well as the impact of software patents on open source.
Unfortunately I’ve learned today that China has already granted software patents. Even more sadly is the fact that most participants viewed software patents as ‘inevitable’, as a thing that Chinese companies need to deal with as they join the global community. I told them about the various software patent backlashes around the world, especially in Europe; and also asked them to ponder the question of whether software patents, as currently implemented by the US, is a sensible and logical thing for China to move towards. Hopefully this will get them thinking…
could u give out some examples of software patents in china?
I read an article about patents in China on a news site.
It said, many foreign companies like Korea, Japan, and US are getting many patents in China.
They are focusing on wireless communication, optical communication, and information technology.
The last one would be software patent…
cathayan,
For example, this Chinese anti-virus software has been granted 6 patents. They are:
All of these sound way too broad and must have prior art…
Does the Chinese Patent Office publishes patents online?
It would be great to have a Chinese group of people taking care of swpat in CN.