Tim Bray Finds An Affinity Between Patents And OSS

Manuzhai writes "Tim Bray, of XML co-invention fame, is writing about software patents and Open Source software today. While he deprecates the 'business-method' patents like one-click ordering, he thinks some (Open) source code could tell the truth about a patent application: 'In fact, in an ideal world, I'd rewrite the law to allow software patents but require a working Open-Source implementation as a condition of getting one.'"

Comments

Re:Eliminates patent benefit.

[gbjbaanb]

It doesn't have to be 'free open source', just open and source.

ie. The patent applicant not only has to write some code showing how his invention works in detail, but also has to show it to anyone who wants to see it. Those people who see it may not use it in their own applications (or they'd be violating the patent) so all the benefits of having a patent apply, but no-one would be able to patent anything that didn't have a concrete implementation (like 1-click for example).

I think that's the idea, but if you think about it - if you wrote code for 1-click, either you'd be restricting people from using the same techniques but they could implement 1-click in a different way, which I think does invalidate the idea of a patent after all.

Imagine I come up with a novel way of toasting bread, and I have to create my 'toaster'. If patents are to work, that'd have to stop other people from inventing the 'grill'. If that is true, then my way of implementing 1-click would stop other people from implementing 1-click in their own way.
The alternative, if my software only applies to my way of doing 1-click, then someone could legally invent the grill even though I have the toaster patent.

(I think I'll go lie down and wait for someone knowledgeable about patents to tell me what I mean :) )