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More Calls for Patent Reform
ibi writes "On the heels of the PriceWaterHouseCoopers report about the threat of SoftPats to innovation, comes a book by a Harvard B School and Brandeis economics professor about how broken the patent system is in general. In short their book argues that the entire system is a (stunned silence) scam. (They actually call it 'a creator of litigation and uncertainty that threatens the innovation process itself' instead but that's cause you don't get tenure for using words like 'scam'.) Interesting to see that its gotten so bad that a professor of Investment Banking at Harvard even thinks something oughta be done."
There is nothing wrong with software patents, except that when the average product lifecycle is three years the patents are too long for software. I think everyone could be kept happy by limiting patents on software to some shorter term (say 5 years) ... The inventor gets a licensed monopoly for the life of the product - then it becomes public property. This seems to be the easiest way to address the patent imbalance without the costly process of changing the mechanism...
overall progress would be improved if the terms were reduced to something more like 2 years.
2 year patents for pharmaceuticals would make it useless to develop new medicines, due to the extensive testing required by the FDA prior to marketing. This is why most drugs are only on the market a few years before the patent expires, allowing generics to be developed.
The proper amount of time is very dependent upon the nature of the patent an the industry it is involved with.
What?
Last night I attended a talk by Richard Stallman entitled The Danger of Software Patents in Luxembourg. He made a convincing case as to how the patent system when applied to software ideas was poorly executed (a legal mess, scope defined too widely, etc.) He concluded that the patents system on software ideas stifled innovation and hurt Joe Developer while making "the Mega-corporations" (his word) richer. (I won't list his arguments because I'm sure you're all familar with them.)
I accept that the patents system as it stands is far from optimal, or even fair. But could someone please clarify this for me: how could it be an alternative to abolish patents on software ideas altogether when this would remove the financial incentive for someone to protect their software invention? We'd all like to live in a world where financial gain meant less than it does, but is it really a realistic option? What IS the alternative without making the patent system even more cryptic and complex? What am I missing here?
---- scrm