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Supreme Court Skeptical of Computer-Based Patents
walterbyrd (182728) writes "The case, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, poses huge risks for both sides. If the court upholds the patent or rules only narrowly against it without affecting most others, the problem of too many patents — and patent lawsuits — will continue. In that case, Justice Stephen Breyer said, future competition could move from price and quality to 'who has the best patent lawyer.'"
I create software on a daily basis, for a variety of purposes. I've done work on some systems which have turned out to be very revolutionary and the concept of patenting them seldom came up - one employer, when I posed the question of IP, replied, "We're not an intellectual property company." Which effectively meant, it a competitor saw our system at work, copied it and patented it we'd probably be willing to pay them a license fee just to get off our backs - shocking, but probably the case.
As for Microsoft and Zynga, they're both standing on the shoulders of giants. If various methods of performing tasks within an operating system or performing collision detection and tallying scores existed, neither company would be around today - having been soundly thumped by Sperry, IBM, DEC, CDC, Activision, EA, etc.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I've waffled between being against them or pushing for reform; currently, I'm against them. Here's why:
1. If you're being trolled, they're bad.
2. If you're a troll, you're not creating anything other than lawsuits.
3. If you created something and are small business (don't retain an in-house lawyer or thirty), you can't afford to defend your patent anyway -- its only value is to be part of a portfolio to boost your value if you sell out to someone with lots of money (here, your invention isn't what's valued, but your patent and its war chest strength).
4. If you created something and are a big business, you have the choice of being mired in the current patent sinkhole, or competing purely on how mobile your company is -- innovation and all that, which is what patents were supposed to supprot.
So any way you look at it, the current system is bad. I'm starting to think that it has got to the point where it is almost totally detrimental.
Note that I'm talking about the patent system as it pertains to software patents, not physical inventions. THAT patent system just needs reform.
And yes, I'm a creator in many fields, and even have my name on a patent or two.