[e2e] patents on routing algorithms

[Joe Touch]

Jon Crowcroft wrote:
> a letter in this month's CACM reminds us that the Church-Turing Theorem
> states that algorithms and mathematics are the same - math is unpatentable
> so ...

FWIW, math isn't patentable itself, but is potentially patentable when
applied to a real problem (e.g., general path calculation wouldn't be,
but IP packet routing would even if it's basically just an application
of general path calculation).

See, e.g.,:
http://www.bitlaw.com/software-patent/history.html

Joe

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