Subj : Re: Software Patents
To   : comp.programming
From : Scott Moore
Date : Mon Jul 11 2005 01:25 pm


Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:
>
> 
>>I agree that software patents are abused in the United States, and
>>companies that do nothing save accumulate IP for litigation are legal
>>and economic parasites.  But this seems to me to be a symptom of a
>>patent office that grants overly broad or obvious patents.  If patents
>>were confined to legitimately original inventions that took significant
>>work to develop, I think they'd be a positive thing.

The US Patent Office has had their income from patents repeatedly raided
by congress to fund other government issues. Congress recognizes the
USPO as a money making operation, and this reverberates with large
companies trying to lock out small competitors via patents. To these
companies, the larger the patent fees required, the better, since that
cuts down on small filers. To the USPO, upping fees generates more
money, and on and on.

The system is not without harm. The patent on the steam engine retarded
industry so much in brittian that it essentially became a technological
backwater to America. We are seeing a repeat of this now in software
patents. We will lose our edge in computer software to other nations
because we can't stop greedy lawers who want to take over our business.

.