[CLUE-Talk] Something to think about

[Timothy C. Klein]

* Alex Young (ayoung at email.com) wrote:
> Richard,

> I don't think that the IBM patents are that significant to the rest
> of the unix vendors. Most large OS companies hold a lot of conflicting
> patents they never enforce.

> One common stratigie is to threaten cross-suit if a company says it
> plans to enforce a pattent for a technology in existing software.

> It really gets down to a basic misuse of patents in industry. The
> number of frivolous patents is huge, and prior art is almost never
> looked into before a patent is issued.

> In short, I think as long as the other unix's play fair they will be
> safe from IBM, and rightly so. However, if there was a huge IP war
> started, say by Microsoft asserting that there is violating technology
> in Linux, I think the system will have to admit that software and
> business practice patents don't mean a lot anymore, scrap them and start
> with a clean slate.

While I agree with the sentiment -- our current patent system is *very*
broken, I don't agree with your analysis of the outcome. As much as
I would like for American business / politicians to 'wake up' if a
major patent war was fought, I don't think there is any chance it
would happen. Firstly, the people that currently support the US patent
system are disproportionately represented in Congress. They would fight
tooth-and-nail any major overhaul of the patent system, and probably
win. Secondly, there is a very large contingent of anti-regulation folks
who would have the knee-jerk reaction that the current system is OK,
and any attempt at reform would be seen as simply more regulation, and
thus vehemently opposed. When this faction of regular folks is combined
with the very powerful lobby in favor of current patent law, I think any
reform is nearly impossible today.

Ultimately, the very best that could be hoped for from an IBM patent war
would be a specific legal victory on a certain patent(s). And even that
would be a hard fought battle. The corporations that currently make
money off patents like them the way they are -- and they have enormous
influence.

Boy, don't I sound pessimistic? What I think it would really take is
something extremely horrible to be enforced by a court. Say, some
company drums up a patent on DVDs, or something, and demands so much
in licensing fees that DVDs double in price and half of the titles
disappear. Something like that might get some fashion of (probably weak)
reform passed.

Tim
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