Paul Graham has a very interesting article on patents, specifically on whether software patents are a good thing or not (Are Software Patents Evil?). He argues that software patents are not really any different from other forms of patents - if you can patent the mechanical version of something, why couldn't you patent the software version of it?
The problem, he claims, is that the patent office has made so many mistakes. The most common mistake is that the patent office is granting patents that simply shouldn't be granted.
To be patentable, an invention has to be more than new - it has to be non-obvious. Graham notes that Amazon's one-click patent falls into this category. The problem is not that it is a software patent, but that it is obvious.
He has a real grip with patent trolls. These are companies that simply acquire patents but never use them other than to simply sue other companies (once they have money of course). But he suspects that the legislative changes may occur sometime over the next few years to mitigate this problem.
It was very interesting. I must admit that I would be much less opposed to software patents if patents were granted correctly and patent trolls were eliminated. In fact it could quite possibly solve the problem completely.
The problem, he claims, is that the patent office has made so many mistakes. The most common mistake is that the patent office is granting patents that simply shouldn't be granted.
To be patentable, an invention has to be more than new - it has to be non-obvious. Graham notes that Amazon's one-click patent falls into this category. The problem is not that it is a software patent, but that it is obvious.
He has a real grip with patent trolls. These are companies that simply acquire patents but never use them other than to simply sue other companies (once they have money of course). But he suspects that the legislative changes may occur sometime over the next few years to mitigate this problem.
It was very interesting. I must admit that I would be much less opposed to software patents if patents were granted correctly and patent trolls were eliminated. In fact it could quite possibly solve the problem completely.
Trackbacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: