August 27, 2003
Software Patents
Software patents are bad. Don't let them come to Europe.
When a patent is approved, it's claims are not made public for 18 months. A company could have a new piece of software in widespread use before it's even possible to check if it infringes existing patents.
For market competition, new packages must be allowed to build on existing practices. Companies with large patent portfolios would have a legal tool to enforce monopoly status.
Software development companies would have to regularly perform patent lookups while developing software, development resources would be diverted to legal issues.
In America, large software developing companies find it impossible to develop new software without infringing a few patents. Worse, a parasitic class of intellectual property firm is appearing. These small, usually new firms buy the patents of cash strapped companies and with nothing to lose, start suing anyone that they think they can get money out of.
Posted by savs at August 27, 2003 9:26 AM