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A difference between software patents and other patents that pg is missing, is that a piece of software is always a composition of thousands of (patentable) ide
by Peaker 15y ago
A difference between software patents and other patents that pg is missing, is that a piece of software is always a composition of thousands of (patentable) ideas. A non-software product is typically a composition of 0-10 (patentable) ideas.
That means that the odds of any hardware product of accidentally hitting or being encumbered by a patent are nearly nil. The odds of a software project of not hitting any patent are nearly nil.
This difference is circumstantial and not a fundamental property of things -- but a very important one.
- yagibear 15y agoNon-software products are quite complicated once you look beneath the surface, e.g. even a cheap toaster has 400 parts http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toast... . Sure, the number of distinct parts would be lower (perhaps 100), they tend to involve more mature technology for which any patents might have now expired, and the toaster manufacturer probably buys many of the parts rather than manufacturing them themselves, but I would think that the odds of an advanced hardware product accidentally hitting a patent are significantly more than nil.