Europe's software patent war ignites again

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So you have no idea.

I mentioned well known, fundamental IDEAS that revolutionized the personal computing market. All of these are examples of an idea, not patented, that companies compete freely with. Obviously, these were not patented. Why? Because software patents were not widely pursued or provided for software at those times. Still, many companies make a great deal of profit on these ideas in the very same manner presented in my previous post.

So you have decided not to acknowledge an existence proof that denies your initial claim that I repeat here:

"No software company, of course, would want to do without patents. Because their prosperity relies entirely on ideas, their value would be reduced intolerably if their main assets were suddenly handed over to the world."

Many of the patented software claims are trivial and obvious. That's the point. There is no R&D, or invention, or nimble mind coming to a discovery before others. Many of the most contentious patent disputes were based on claims that were quite obvious to all, but then one company decided to patent them to protect their marketshare or worse create a patent annuity portfolio withoiut providing even or competing with a product based sales to offset development and support costs.

That behavior has cost competitors and consumers uncalculable amounts of money. Such examples include "click through" ads and browsers calling content specific applications. This one has even cost MS in legal and development expense. That is why software should not be patented.

BTW, I have produced three patents. None of these are software patents. So don't try to patronize me with why the patent system exists or how it works. The patents that I have produced were produced solely to stifle competition in the photonics market. They were novel and innovative, but not unique enough that some else wouldn't think of them. I have produced many of those kinds of ideas as well. These were never patented because we would never wish to disclose the invention in the first place. Trade secrets are actually much more powerful than patents.

So, are your implying that I'm the strawman because you, the flying monkey, "don't think [you] performed any amputations on [me]." Well I won't buy that, because a monkey may have an idea.

Posted by: msolgeek   Posted on: 09/22/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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