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The New Yorker on Business Process Patents

Posted by michael on from the bending-is-patented dept.

caledon writes "The New Yorker has a clear, concise, nontechnical essay by its finance columnist James Surowiecki criticizing business process patents: Patent Bending. 'Although we have always had a vibrant patent system, we've managed to strike a balance between the need to encourage innovation and the need to foster competition. As Benjamin Day, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton might attest, American corporations have thrived on innovative ideas and new business methods, without owning them, for two centuries. In the past decade, the balance has been upset.' Makes the argument persuasively."

1 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's all in the perspective by cmdr_beeftaco · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Contracts are targetted legal instruments used to protect yourself from a specific set of adverse actions from a known party.

    Patents on the other hand provide broad protections that protect ideas from unintended uses on a global scale (thanks to many IP related treaties).

    I would think that someone whodevelops something as important and unique as an efficent sorting algorithm ought to do the upmost to protect that intellectual property.

    An efficent sorting algorithm could provide a massive benifit to society. Think cancer research and other genetic inquries. Think Homeland Security making planes safer with TIA. Think efficent code checkers to look for stolen code over 100,000's lines of code. The possibilities are endless...