US Software Patents Hit Record High

Aditi Tuteja writes "US Patent and Trademark Office made a new record for the number of software patents awarded in a single year. The agency has issued 893 new patents yesterday. Pushing the total to 30,232 in this year. If this is the trend, more than 40,000 software patents will be issued this year, according to the Public Patent Foundation. The previous record was set in 2004. Several major technology vendors have pledged not to enforce their patents against open source projects. IBM for instance essentially donated 500 patents to open source projects last year. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court overthrew a prior judgement that required a judge to issue an automatic injunction if he found that a patent was being infringed."

Comments

Granted or Rubber-Stamped?

[Watson Ladd]

How many of these are based on methods that are centuries old, like Projective Gauss-Siegel? And how many are just plain obvious?

Re:We did it!!!

[The Real Nem]

Look on the bright side, at least we're getting all this patenting nonsense done with and out of the way all at once. In another 20 years there will be no more software patents because everything patentable, or at least worth wile patenting, (even the stupidest most obvious of ideas and interfaces) will have expired. Then we'll be free to bath and bask on two centuries of wealth wasted on two centuries of greed. Perhaps only then will true innovation begin.

I'm dreaming again.

Re:Simple question

[aeoo]

In general I'm pro patent and copyright but I may be facing a real problem with a new project. How can I be sure I'm not infringing on some one else's patent? Is the first sign the lawsuit? There's no real system in place for spot checking so anything I do in software development may be in breach and I have no way to know it. I want to support the system but with potentially millions of patents in place it's going to be hard to avoid infinging. We're a small company so a lawsuit is french for bankruptcy.

If I told you that such system for spot checking could not be feasibly created, would you still be pro patent?

In other words, does the pragmatic usability of idea affect your opinion about it? Or do you like some things, no matter how well they turn out in real life? (In other words, are you an idealist?) It's a real question. I'm not trying to imply anything.

Are you pro patent, then, in hopes of such system coming online soon? If there is no obvious reason to hope for such a system becoming available soon, then why are you pro patent?

Good! Patent everything!

[NotQuiteReal]

The sooner everything is patented, the sooner the patents will run out.

Not only will every thing then be up for grabs, but it will all be neatly documented at the USPTO!

Wake me up in 20 years.

A related question - if someone suspects you of infinging their software patent, but you claim closed source, trade secret status, how can they prove you infringed, if you don't allow them to reverse engineer your software, under penalty of the DMCA?