A New Kind of Science: The NKS Forum (http://forum.wolframscience.com/index.php)
- NKS Way of Thinking (http://forum.wolframscience.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=5)
-- patenting rules (http://forum.wolframscience.com/showthread.php?threadid=1910)

patenting rules

What do people think about patents for an application of a very simple rule?

A possibly dated NYT article is not exactly about things as simple as stuff from NKS, but something similar. The main issue is that a mathematical algorithm or abstract idea is not patentable.

It would seem that this aspect of patent law does not take into account the fundamental NKS observation, and would make it difficult for industrial applications of NKS.

It would be more natural to treat the discovery of a use for a simple rule in the same way as 19th century discoveries of gold.