[CLUE-Talk] Patent Infringement

[Dennis J Perkins]

>

> On 03-02 23:44, bill ehlert wrote:
> > 
> > **  patents.  my understanding is that
> >     they're a means of advancing the "state
> >     of the art" by requiring anybody who
> >     gets one to disclose in the patent
> >     app just exactly how he/she does
> >     what the patent does.
> > 
> >     seems to be that advancing the state of
> >     the art should advance open-source
> >     s/w just as much as any other s/w.
> >     perhaps more due the to the inherent
> >     advantages of the open-source 
> >     development model.
> > 
> >     so why are we making fun of it???
> 
> Well, along the lines that Jeffrey and Dennis were going:
> 
> 1. When you award "software patents" for ideas that aren't really that
> novel, I'm not sure it's advancing anything. If/when a patent on, say,
> one-click buying expires, what information will the public gain from Amazon
> on this? There is no algorithm. There is no real trade secret here. What
> about a patent on "delivering music over a network"? For a while there at
> least, it's almost as if someone could add "over the Internet" to any
> standard business practice, and gain a patent on it. Imagine if
> brick-n-mortar worked the same way: we'd have only one fast food chain
> that was allowed to have a drive-thru. Or only one grocery store chain that
> was allowed to use bar code scanners.
> 
> 2. Patents could be used to *stifle* open-source development, and I think I
> recall one of Microsoft's leaked memos stating just that strategy. I'd be
> willing to wager money that companies with deep pockets will do just that,
> too. If Microsoft has to compete on price and quality alone, they aren't
> going to do too well.
> 
> 3. They are being extended (as are copyrights) way beyond what was
> originally intended. And in software, just as others have said, 14 years is
> way too long as it is.  
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
> http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
> Get MLAC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlac/
> Disneyland: A people trap operated by a giant mouse. 
> (contributed by Frank v Waveren) 
> _______________________________________________
> CLUE-Talk mailing list
> CLUE-Talk at clue.denver.co.us
> http://clue.denver.co.us/mailman/listinfo/clue-talk
> 

For some reason, people often feel that moving from one medium to another 
constitues innovation.  I disagree.  How they make the idea work in the new 
medium might be novel but that should be a more restrictive type of patent.
Ordering via the Internet should not be patentable, for instance.

Personally, I think that software patents are a bad idea.