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The Case Against Software Patents, In 9 Charts

posted by n1 on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the innovations-in-patent-trolling dept.

gewg_ writes:

One of Roy Schestowitz's pages pointed to work by Professor James Bessen.

Surveys of software developers find that most are opposed to patent protection for software. Why is this? Patents, after all, are supposed to aid inventors, and developers are the "inventors" in this important technology.

A look at the data makes it clear why patents are unpopular in the software industry. Most software developers and startup firms gain little from patents. The patent system is difficult to navigate, thanks to unclear rules about which patents cover which technologies. And the software industry has been swamped by lawsuits from litigious firms known as patent trolls.

Here are 9 charts that show why patents are such a problem in the software industry.

Does anyone know what caused the divot in charts 8 & 9 in 2003?

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @10:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @10:26PM (#69470)

    Hmmm. I thought that was 1999.
    It was for Burlington Coat Factory. [google.com]

    Maybe it was 2000.
    That was when an M$ proxy (The Business Software Alliance) raided Ernie Ball, Inc. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [freerepublic.com]
    $100,000 in unjust penalties was bad.
    M$ making sure that evening that the company's name was splattered all over the national news was the limit. [googleusercontent.com] (orig)[1] [active-technologies.com]
    Years later, when asked about the chances of ever going back to M$'s products, CEO Sterling Ball said "when pigs fly". [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [etmag.com]

    [1] Actually, the original was on CNET; M$'s lapdog has since taken it down.

    -- gewg_

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2014, @06:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2014, @06:57AM (#69647)

    Avoid clicking those google links, they know quite enough already about you...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2014, @06:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2014, @06:52PM (#69909)

      Thank you, Captain Obvious.
      I also link the original URL; one reason for that is to placate those who are paranoid.
      If you block their cookies, Goggle knows the IP address where the packets go and little else.
      If you have just a little sense, they don't even get a referrer URL.

      -- gewg_