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> If present trends continue, the only recourse available to the majority of America's brilliant software developers will be to give up software or to emigrate
by Xichekolas 17y ago
> If present trends continue, the only recourse available to the majority of America's brilliant software developers will be to give up software or to emigrate.
There is one other alternative which is available to anyone not selling their software... ignore patents. I'm not sure if it's a legal option, but it certainly seems to be the common case. I know I don't bother to stop and figure out if an idea is patented before I implement it for my own uses.
- wvenable 17y agoIt's possible that the changes from software patents haven't trickled down far enough yet. Currently it's just the big players, but once a patent troll finds a way to extract money from local software shops the landscape will change dramatically. Ignoring software patents works as long as everyone does it; it just takes one organization to bring it all down.
- grellas 17y agoMany companies function in this way and problems do not typically arise in a day-to-day sense in most cases. However, in any due diligence situation (e.g., funding or acquisition), patent problems are likely to be unearthed and can then be very serious unless a ready workaround is at hand.
- tjogin 17y agoSoftware patent disputes are uncommon in the little league, but unfortunately not uncommon in the big boys' league. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that Microsoft was ordered to stop selling Word due to software patents.
- fabjan 17y agoI'm afraid patents are too strong for that. It's illegal to infringe on patents even for your own use.
- Xichekolas 17y agoI'm aware that it may not be legal. My argument was that it's also unenforceable.