Semiconductor IP News and Trends Blog

Semiconductor IP Brief – Software Patents, Tesla’s Free, CERN Transfers

Does the Supreme Court ruling mean the death or salvation of software patents? Is Tesla really offering key IP for free? CERN does tech transfers.

Here’s a brief look at what’s new in the world of semiconductor related intellectual property (IP):

1) Are you unclear as to the outcome of the US Supreme Court’s recent decision concerning software patenting – or, more specifically, the challenges to patents involving computer-implemented claims? Judging from the variety of rather biased opinion pieces, your lack of clarity is understandable.

• Alice, the Illusory Death of Software Patents – “… Some commentators quite quickly suggested that the Supreme Court’s … will “invalidate the majority of all software patents in force today” and is “bad news for software patents”.”
• Supreme Court Ruling Throws Roadblock in the Way of Software Patents – An abstract idea is not patentable simply because it is tied to a computer system, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, potentially making it more difficult to patent some software in the future.
• Patent Trolls Are Mortally Wounded – The Supreme Court gets it right when it comes to software patents.
• Do Judges, And The Public, Understand Software? – This blog is my personal favor from a fellow technology editor, Bill Wong, at Electronic Design.

2) Telsa offers free access to battery, charging and connector patents:

• All Our Patent Are Belong To You, by Elon Musk, CEO
• Tesla Motors’ Patents Up for Grabs: Any Takers? – Tesla Motors has devoted an entire wall of its Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters to displaying its electric vehicle technology patents, which include its battery pack venting system, state-of-charge range, vehicle charge connector, plus another 187 innovations the company has chosen to protect. But this week, those patents have all been taken down and its intellectual property is now available to the public for free. The company says it made this unusual decision “in the spirit of the open-source movement.”

At last year’s Dassault Systemes (DS) 3DExperience Customer Forum - Oliver Sappin, VP of Transportation and Mobililty at DS talks with Paul Lomangino, Director of Engineering at Tesla Motors, about 3D modeling and supply chain challenges.

3) CERN is expanding its IP transfer program with the recent announcement of a new business incubation centre in The Netherlands. This center will support, “the development and exploitation of innovative ideas in technical fields broadly related to CERN activities in high-energy physics such as, for example, detectors, cooling technology and high-performance computing. CERN will contribute with the transfer of technology and know-how through technical visits to CERN, support at the BIC and preferential-rate licensing of CERN intellectual property.”

CERN Computer Center, home to high-performance computing. (Courtesy of CERN, Roger Claus)