Canada Courts, Patent Office Warns Against Trying To Patent Mathematics

davecb writes "The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has recently published two notices for patent examiners relating to patent interpretation, and in particular computer-related/business method type patents saying: 'for example, what appears on its face to be a claim for an "art" or a "process" may, on a proper construction, be a claim for a mathematical formula and therefore not patentable subject matter.'"

Re:You can't patent math

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to add "with an iphone" to the end, otherwise you could do that with paper and pen and that's not patentable.

Re:Matter of time

[L4t3r4lu5]

Ah, the good ol' Slashdot obligatory xkcd [xkcd.com]

Re:Uh Oh

[Nbrevu]

Of course! This is because of prior art. Your so-called 'x' is nothing but a 45 rotation of MY patented '+' symbol for addition.