Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Spawn of the Devil?

Author:Gary Robinson
Posted:7/25/2000; 8:20:29 AM
Topic:Spawn of the Devil?
Msg #:19015 (In response to 19007)
Prev/Next:19014 / 19016

Right, but there are reasons why patent laws exist.

Yes, it is possible for somebody to hoodwink an examiner into giving them a trivial (the legal term is "invalid") patent, and then threaten to sue companies if they don't pay up. Mistakes will be made by examiners, particularly when the industry doesn't put together an efficient means to find the prior art.

These problems are not unique to software patents.

But, if patents didn't have power, they would be worthless, and power can always be abused by some people. It's unavoidable.

The question is, is there enough good in patents that it's worth the inevitable bad? Congress, to date, has said yes.

My feeling is rather than by focusing on the bad to the point that we don't see that the good exists, we should take a wide-angle view that includes both sides, and then work to minimize the bad... working together to overturn patents that are being used for extortion... building a truly useful prior art database... lobbying in congress to get a shorter term for software patents... getting a window when prior art can be presented to the patent examiner before a patent is issued.

These are things that could be done by the industry that would be allow us not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:55:49 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.