[Fsf-friends] A Dismal Report in the Hindu

[Vijay Kumar]

Ramanraj K <ramanraj.k@gmail.com> writes:

> amendments to the Copyright  Act, 1957.  The mis-application of patent
> law to cover computer programs  would have been a serious violation of
> our  international obligations  and  India could  have been  arraigned
> before  the WTO  for breach.   The illegitimate  practice  of granting
> patents for  computer programs is notably  present in US,  Japan and a
> few European countries.  India should complain to the WTO and obtain a
> ruling  asking these  countries to  comply with  the TRIPS  treaty and
> update their laws.

I am confused.  Section 5, article 27 of the TRIPS agreement says

    1. Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3, patents shall
    be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in
    all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an
    inventive step and are capable of industrial application.

Then how could patents for software ideas be an illegitimate practice
under the TRIPS agreement?  Doesn't this just mean that software is
both copyrightable and patentable?  What am I missing?

Vijay