The USPTO Would Like to Partner with the Software Community ... Wait. What? Really? (Groklaw)

Groklaw reports on an invitation from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for software developers to join two roundtable discussions aimed at "enhancing" the quality of software patents. Both events are in February: one in New York City and one in Silicon Valley. As Groklaw points out, the events are space-limited and proprietary software vendors are sure to attend. "Large companies with patent portfolios they treasure and don't want to lose can't represent the interests of individual developers or the FOSS community, those most seriously damaged by toxic software patents." (Thanks to Davide Del Vento)