Red Hat stands up against software patents

It's refreshing to see a big player in the software game make a stand for improving the rules, instead of just playing by them.

We've been watching the controversy over software patents for a long while. They've caused endless trouble in the US (think Microsoft and its efforts to cow the open source community) and we applauded when they were thrown out in Europe. We note that the issue is still there.

So it's good to see Red Hat - the open source company most often accused of selling out - making a stand against software patents in the US.

Like a lot of such cases, this one is blowing up from an apparently obscure starting point. Bernard Bilski, chief executive of Weatherwise, filed a patent for “managing the consumption risk costs of a commodity”, but this was refused by the patent office as being too abstract. The open source community has spotted that if the patent office's original decision is upheld, there are plenty of other existing patents that could be challenged as "too abstract" - possibly even most of the software patents in existence.

In other words, this is a test case on the patentability of software.

Red Hat and others are posting papers explaining the position against software patents, as "friends of the court" - and they are well argued. Groklaw has the text of Red Hat's filing, if you don't want the PDF version.

Keep watching this one - it could make a real difference!