Even though I have a couple of patents to my name I am generally against software patents, sometimes I think that for genuinely novel algorithms there should be an exception (e.g. RSA encryption). However, as there is clearly no way of objectively defining what a "novel" algorithm is (i.e. there is no algorithm for it) we can't really have this exception.
So yes, I would agree that algorithms should not be patentable.
Even if RSA really is sufficiently novel (note that it had already been discovered by a secret service four years before publication), is that really worth a 20-year monopoly?
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Intel's patented a variation on the Karatsuba algorithm. It hasn't simply patented 'multiplying two numbers' as stated!
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karatsuba_algorithm
That said, the (original) algorithm is well-known and even novel algorithms shouldn't be patentable.
"even novel algorithms shouldn't be patentable"
Even though I have a couple of patents to my name I am generally against software patents, sometimes I think that for genuinely novel algorithms there should be an exception (e.g. RSA encryption). However, as there is clearly no way of objectively defining what a "novel" algorithm is (i.e. there is no algorithm for it) we can't really have this exception.
So yes, I would agree that algorithms should not be patentable.
Even if RSA really is sufficiently novel (note that it had already been discovered by a secret service four years before publication), is that really worth a 20-year monopoly?
Still an algo for multiplying two numbers. Also invented by someone else (hence the name) in the 60s.
Can't actually see the patent since the patent site's down.