EFF: Stupid Patent of the Month: A Patent on Using Mathematical Proofs

Stupid Patent of the Month: A Patent on Using Mathematical Proofs

In some fields, software bugs are more than the proverbial pain in the neck. When software has to ensure that an airplane lands safely, or that a pacemaker keeps operating, there’s no room for error.

The idea that mathematical proofs could be used to prove that software is error-free has been around since the 1970s, and is known as “formal verification.” But like a lot of technologies that some visionaries saw coming, it took time to develop. In recent years, computing power has become cheap enough for formal verification to become practical for more software applications.

Unfortunately, last month, the field had a monkey wrench thrown into it, in the form of U.S. Patent No. 10,109,010, which the patent office awarded to a U.K.-based company called Aesthetic Integration Ltd.

Claim 1 of the patent describes creating mathematical “axioms”—formal mathematical statements—that describe a computerized trading forum. The patented method then describes analyzing, with a “computer assessment system … the mathematical axioms that describe the operation of the trading forum.” In other words, the patent describes using formal proofs to check for bugs in a “computerized trading forum.” It’s formal verification—just applied to the financial services industry.

Of course, Aesthetic Integration didn’t invent formal verification, nor did the company invent the idea of software powering a “trading forum.” The company has apparently created software that utilizes formal verification in the financial services space, and that software might be perfectly good. But the Patent Office has effectively allowed the company to patent a whole sector of formal verification.

To be fair, the ’010 patent appears to reflect some advanced and difficult programming by Aesthetic Integration. But that does not mean it should be patentable. Consider the following analogy: there are no 50 story buildings in Cincinnati. Building a 50 story building in Cincinnati, and making it compliant with seismic safety standards, would be hard work. It would take many engineers a great deal of effort to apply existing techniques to complete the project. You could write a lengthy paper describing that process, which might include lots of complex charts and diagrams. Still, that does not mean a company that completes such a project should then get a monopoly on tall buildings in Cincinnati.

Aesthetic Integration claims to be the first to apply formal verification to trading software. If that’s true, the company may get a well-earned competitive advantage by being the first to this market. But it should not get a 20 year monopoly simply for applying programming techniques that the company itself has described as part of a “mature and effective field of science.”

Ultimately, the ’010 patent reflects a broader problem with Patent Office’s failure to apply a meaningful obviousness standard to software patent applications. We have explained before that the Patent Office is all too willing to hand out patents for using known techniques in a particular field. Flow charts and whirligigs can make a concept look new when it isn’t—especially when a patent owner fills its application with obscure language and “patentese.” The Federal Circuit has also encouraged this through its hyper-formalistic approach to obviousness. The end result is an arms race where people rush to patent routine software development.

As we’ve said before, patents are simply a bad fit for software. The Patent Office should stop giving out patents on formal verification, or other well-known software processes.

Visit Toronto Wiring for more info


Visit Toronto Wiring

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EFF: No Digital Surveillance of Iranians at the U.S. Border—or Within the U.S.

No Digital Surveillance of Iranians at the U.S. Border—or Within the U.S. Only days into heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, media outlets have published disturbing reports of increased scrutiny of people of Iranian descent at U.S. borders, including in at least one case involving a traveler’s phone. EFF strongly opposes any targeting of people for digital surveillance based on their race, religion, or nationality, at our border and in our interior. And we remind all members of the public to practice surveillance self-defense. Disturbing Reports from the Border On January 5, media outlets reported that more than 60 people of Iranian descent, including U.S. citizens, were held at the border between Canada and Washington state for many hours and questioned about their perceived connections to Iran. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) denied that it detained or refused entry to Iranians based on their national origin, a claim contested by accounts f
Read more

EFF: Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate

Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate A coalition of civil rights and public interest groups issued recommendations today on policies they believe Internet intermediaries should adopt to try to address hate online. While there’s much of value in these recommendations, EFF does not and cannot support the full document. Because we deeply respect these organizations, the work they do, and the work we often do together; and because we think the discussion over how to support online expression—including ensuring that some voices aren’t drowned out by harassment or threats—is an important one, we want to explain our position. We agree that online speech is not always pretty—sometimes it’s extremely ugly and causes real world harm. The effects of this kind of speech are often disproportionately felt by communities for whom the Internet has also provided invaluable tools to organize, educate, and connect. Systemic discrimination does not disappear and can even be ampl
Read more

Living on the (IT) Edge: Schneider Electric at HPE Discover 2018

Image
We’re here at HPE Discover 2018 , proudly sponsoring the event and enjoying a jam-packed few days in Las Vegas. The data center industry has experienced tremendous disruption in the last decade. The fourth Industrial Revolution, with its IT/OT convergence, the proliferation of IoT, and insatiable demand for digital connectivity, is creating the opportunity to push the envelope of performance beyond the obvious and create new business value. And there’s no bigger opportunity right now than at the edge. At the same time, these new paradigms are also driving more complexity: companies today are trying to manage a combination of environments, from large centralized data centers on-premises or in the cloud, regional edge data centers, to local edge data centers. We have more data centers, intertwined across more locations, and with more data, than ever before. All of this adds up to promising opportunities on the horizon for our customers – but an equally daunting number of new challenges
Read more