First, I was trying to relate the ideas behind the patent system not to describe how it works in practice. So, while I always like to talk about how gnu and Lin

First, I was trying to relate the ideas behind the patent system not to describe how it works in practice. So, while I always like to talk about how gnu and Linux took over the world, it's not relavent to the discussion of rents vis a vie patents. Second, Unix is a bad example because AT&T never tried to patent it. I'll ask my dad about it. He worked at bell labs during this time (he has about 2 dozen patents and an IEEE medal). I think the attitude around there was that software wasn't something you could patent. My dads research was in lasers so I heard much more about lightwave devices than software growing up.