Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday November 25 2018, @03:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the copyrights-patents-and-trademarks-oh-my dept.

Cisco VP/CTO Jonathan Rosenberg has written a blog post about how harmful software patents are to industry. On top of being vague but also transferrable, they can be used offensively by grantees which are not involved in any aspect of making or using the technologies to which the patents apply, an aspect which has caused ongoing, grievous harm to computer-using companies for a long time now. Something needs to change and, so, after outlining the nature of the problem, he closes with two brief solutions.

Friends and relatives who are not in the technology industry always ask me if I've ever gotten a patent. For them, a patent has this sheen of accomplishment. They believe it means you invented something, that you are an innovator, that you've done something no one has done before. I give a little chuckle, tell them that yes, I have a few patents (I actually have 90 issued U.S. patents), but that it's not really a big deal, and thank you for asking. In reality, I'm being polite. I don't want to burst their bubble, nor do I want to launch into a long tirade. Because, the reality is, that patents — and in particular — software patents — are a plague upon the industry. They hamper innovation. They cost companies millions and millions of dollars in frivolous law suits. They waste time and energy from people who just want to build products. They are anathema to the Internet. Software patents are harmful.

Software patents have three key characteristics which have resulted in their harmfulness. They are vague in terms of what is actually invented. They can be passed along as property. You can sue for infringement without making the product to which the patent applies. Lets cover each in turn.

Software remains covered by copyright, as a form of creative expression. Again, while software patents is a problem mostly contained to the US, they are becoming a threat for the EU. Even as the European Patent Convention specifically exempts software from patentability, there remain prolonged efforts to circumvent the law and establish software patents in effect. After all, what do laws matter if companies can be convinced to universally ignore them?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday November 25 2018, @11:01PM (1 child)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday November 25 2018, @11:01PM (#766305)

    Ah, I see what you're getting at now. I'm not sure that I'm convinced "socialism" is the best word for your concept, but I don't know what might work better so it will do for now. ;-)

    I wonder if the problem with the patent system (and copyright for the same reasons) is that it can be such an advantage for dominant players in any industry to own them and help control their market.

    Most industries have become more and more consolidated over the last 20 years or so, therefore it is in the remaining few players' interests to strengthen IP laws so they can maintain their dominance.

    I may have just restated what you said, now I read that back. I will post it anyway.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Monday November 26 2018, @01:16AM

    by Rich (945) on Monday November 26 2018, @01:16AM (#766335) Journal

    I'm not sure that I'm convinced "socialism" is the best word for your concept

    I know, I chose it to scare those thinking along the simple lines of "property, ANY property, big money -> capitalist happiness for ME, and better dead than red" a bit. :) I did ponder about the "super-" prefix, but couldn't think of anything better. Maybe "supra-", or "socialism-topping market damage".

    Anyway, you got my idea about the big entrenched players. There must be a good number of ideas on how to improve the situation for the overall economy. One might be to require a price tag of a patent's worth with the filing. Then there would be a.) a property tax on the price tag and b.) the option for any one (or group) to buy it out and void it at that price tag. But the idea is probably moot, because it goes against the interest of the big players and won't happen.

    My future forecast therefore is that this system (and the increasing amount of mandated paperwork shuffling "bullshit jobs" in general) stifles the western economy to near dysfunction and then the Chinese take over. Should that day arrive, I just hope the Chinese fondly remember that we Germans taught them how to make that tasty beer at Tsing-Tao.