Software patents are wrong but all are not. There is one difference: When you make a real patent you give a nation the knowledge(plans, diagrams, materials and

Software patents are wrong but all are not. There is one difference: When you make a real patent you give a nation the knowledge(plans, diagrams, materials and explanation) to make something and IN EXCHANGE you receive from this nation a monopoly over this particular method for some years. Software patents are being used as a way of buying monopolies over generic ideas, not particular but broad methods so the powerful could destroy competition, without exposing the proprietary code(not giving the knowledge at all). The companies that grew and become powerful and rich without patents like MS and Apple want to use this money to buy them eternal prosperity against new comers. As Dr.Friedman said, the same companies that rise with free market want the free market destroyed. The same person that as a little guy opposed software patents as the boss of a big company tries to enforce it: "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today." Bill Gates