It is a pity that this kind of legal action only stifles progress (High Court rewrites UK software patent rules). Imagine if someone had patented binary or the alphabet.

Introducing patents to software is the reason all the big software companies are embroiled in constant court battles. Every company seems determined to patent every software concept they can, knowing that it will screw up some other software producer's ideas.

Ah well, one of the few remaining bastions of the UK's computer industry is destroyed.

Andrew, submitted on the web