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I'm surprised to see them back a system where there are any software patents at all. I wonder if they really think they are desirable, or if this is simply poli
by morsch 14y ago
I'm surprised to see them back a system where there are any software patents at all. I wonder if they really think they are desirable, or if this is simply political realism based on a judgement that abolishing all software patents is not achievable.
Five years seems like a very, very long time, it leaves all the short term benefits in place, e.g. muscling out the less-innovative competition. I guess this is by design.
The whole proposal sounds very moderate, really.
- TeMPOraL 14y agoMaybe it's about moving the Overton window, but this time in a good direction? Maybe they think that it's easier to make several small steps than one big? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
- frugalfirbolg 14y agoI'm still looking for good literature, but intuitively I feel that small companies could still take advantage of patents for software in the original spirit of the patent system. Also, I wonder if they intend on the working code examples to be included with the public patent after approval? If so then this would in a sense make all patented software open source, albeit with a very restrictive license. Still, that could vastly accelerate innovation and streamline arbitration. In the end I think item 7, the proposal to research whether there is any economic benefit from software patents, is the most important and they should narrow down their scope to just that.