EFF: If You Want to Fix Software Patents, Eliminate Software Patents

[Victorious Secret]

 

 

Personally I think there should be a very fine line between what kind of patents that get allowed and what kind get tossed into the "can't patent it, everyone can use it" bin. Every now and then someone comes up with and implements a truly outstanding piece of software/hardware that IMHO deserves to be protected for the work that got put in. 

On the other hand, patent trolls (big and small) abuse the system by patenting and suing one another over the most silly and arbitrary nonsense. Clearly a fix is needed at some level, I just don't know where. 

 

 

The argument is that software patents may not just be flawed, but utterly unnecessary. This hasn’t always been EFF’s stance on patents, says Adi Kamdar, one of the report’s authors. But as the group compiled the report, it received 16,500 public comments from people in the business, academic, and policy communities. The idea that patents should be eliminated entirely was a common theme.

 

“A big chunk of the engineers we talked to, and even some of the lawyers and activists and policy folk don’t like software patents at all,” Kamdar says. “They said it hinders their innovation flows when they think about creating new things, and the idea of operating in a patent minefield really hurts them.”

 

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/eff-eliminate-software-patents/

[Toddwjp]

i think patents need a minimum level of detail to be sort of decided, to the point that if someone read the patent they would be able to create what it describes. because some things are just stupid

[multifrag]

In my opinion patents should only be allowed to finished work, not an idea. Some patents are written in most broad terms possible...

[Fetzie]

i think patents need a minimum level of detail to be sort of decided, to the point that if someone read the patent they would be able to create what it describes. because some things are just stupid

 

I think that you should have up to three years after registering the patent to get something to market (and not just licensing the patent to a third party), or it goes public domain.