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Originally Posted by leebase
And a short sighted opinion it is...even if you DO work in the trade.
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Perhaps the entire industry is short sighted then... Developers and software companies have been actively fighting to keep software patents out of the EU. Copyright covers the biggest issues.
Not to mention the patent trolls that are causing controversy at the moment.
Here's a blog post that sums up the pro/cons to patents, imo the cons outweigh the pros and that's also the opinion of many in the software industry who are trying to keep software patents out of Europe.
Quote from
http://www.gamerlaw.co.uk/2011/05/pa...-industry.html
Quote:
The arguments in favour of software patents are the same as arguments in favour of patents generally:
* Patents promote development (especially the increasingly large R&D that expensive new software requires)
* Patents mean that the public will eventually obtain public disclosure and free use of the invention (after the 20 year monopoly has finished)
* Patents represent a great deal of hard work, which deserves protection
* Patents are always subject to legal challenge if the patent holder has gone too far
Copyright doesn't go far enough to protect inventions – patent protection is therefore needed
However, opponents of software patents have their own arguments too:
* Software patents are a minefield in the modern software industry, where you can very easily but unknowingly infringe someone's software patent, or at least open yourself to a speculative lawsuit. Or, to put it another way, how are you supposed to know you have infringed a software patent and what are you supposed to do if you have infringed one?
* Software patents are useless #1: no software innovation will ever retain its value for the 20 years of a patent's life.
* Software patents are useless #2: a decent software developer could probably engineer a way around the patent anyway, so why bother having them?
* Software patent protection actually stifles innovation by shutting up new inventions and preventing open and free innovation (especially in the Internet age where we are used to free/fast information exchange)
* Permitting software patents just encourages patent trolls to take legal action against legitimate software developers for a quick return
* Other branches of IP law, like copyright or trade mark law, already provide sufficient protection
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There's also
this page and
this one that includes a mention from Bill Gates with his thoughts as he was setting up Microsoft. His worries are coming true in many ways now with small startups at a much greater risk than established businesses.
There's also an interesting radio segment where David Braben gave his thoughts on software patents, sadly I can't find a link to it or a transcript. I don't see him as been short sighted and he's got a business to protect.
Quote:
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It's no different than when a Chineese company makes knock-off Gucci purses or Rolex watches.
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Trademark and copyright laws cover those cases.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not against Patents in all cases, just as they apply to software. Although in general the patent system needs reforming to cut down on the number of obvious patents that are used for trolling purposes.