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

Re: Spawn of the Devil?

Author:Gary Robinson
Posted:7/25/2000; 10:14:42 AM
Topic:Spawn of the Devil?
Msg #:19031 (In response to 19023)
Prev/Next:19030 / 19032

Thanks for your well-stated response.

I shouldn't have to run all my code past a patent lawyer, just to make sure I didn't inadvertantly duplicate a simple idea that someone else had the gall to buy a monopoly on.

I understand.

There have been software patents pretty much since the beginning of commercial software. How often have you been sued for using a trivial technique? I've been a software professional for 22 years, and I know it's never happened to me!

For one thing, what are the damages if you use some trivial technique that somebody else patented? For any of those techniques, there are 1000 equally obvious other ways to do the same thing. So how could some trivial patent-holder argue in court that their business was damaged because you wrote a particular line of code? What would the damages be?

Especially compared to the cost of prosecuting the lawsuit in the first place?

It doesn't seem to make economic sense to sue for the trivial kind of patents you mention.

Maybe that's the reason those kinds of lawsuits don't normally happen and have therefore not been a significant threat, in this or other industries, at least not enough for the law to be changed.

Take the trivial window calendar software patent, where somebody is trying to profit off a truly obvious idea. My recollection there is that they lost and are going to try to re-issue the patent to try again. Speaking as one who has studied a lot on the subject of patent reissues, I can tell you that their chances of getting anything out of that are virtually nil. Meanwhile, they have spent and will spend a bunch of money.

By shortening the lifespan of these patents, having a database that will make them easier to overturn, etc., the negative (already not historically very big in the real world) will be minimized while the upside (rewarding those who innovate rather than those who are adapt at copying and are well-connected to the sources of money and power) will remain.

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