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Software patents need to be banned. In the interim, employee incentives (ego, bonuses) to being listed as an "inventor" while BigCompany remains the "assignee"
by jorangreef 8y ago
Software patents need to be banned.
In the interim, employee incentives (ego, bonuses) to being listed as an "inventor" while BigCompany remains the "assignee" could be ameliorated with a "Software Patent Hall of Shame" (SPHS), which would list software engineers complicit in software patents.
This would disincentivize software engineers from stealing ideas, from allowing their work to be patented, or from signing agreements which would force them to do so, since doing so would undermine their prospects with future employers, who believe in free and open software and unencumbered computer science research.
- jackvalentine 8y agoIs this even a software patent?
- jorangreef 8y agoNo, but it's Google's love of software patents that is spilling over into everything else, like popup books.
- monochromatic 8y agoThis isn’t a software patent. And anyway, lots of methods get patented. If it’s new and nonobvious, why should the fact that it runs on a computer matter?
- perfunctory 8y agoNot just software patents. All patents. What makes software industry so special?
- da_chicken 8y agoSoftware is also protected by copyright.
- arfar 8y agoCopyright only protects against actual copying. It's quite a limited right in comparison to patents. A patent can prevent others from implementing/selling/making/importing/exploiting the same invention independently created. Copyright pales in comparison to the protection afforded by a patent.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]