Red Hat CEO decries software patents

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Patent abuse

Patents are fine when they are used for their intended purpose. But when people start abusing them it's time to do something about it.

What are some of the ways patents are abused?
-Overly broad patents. These cover an entire technology like a blanket, so there's no way around them.
-Vaguely worded patents. Written in language so ambiguous they could apply to a multitude of things.
-Patent trolls. People or firms who acquire patents for the sole purpose of using them for litigation. their staffs consist almost entirely of patent attorneys, their only inventions are the patents themselves, and their only product is lawsuits.
-Submarine patents. These are patents which are kept hidden from the public by way of continuing applications as a technology develops, then are sprung on hapless users once the technology is in widespread use.
-Patenting old technology. Example: The FAT patent, on the FAT filesystem, recently issued on a technology that has been around since the dawn of computing, probably at least two decades.
-Secretly patenting developing standards, waiting until they are in widespread use, then springing the patent(s) on all using them. Akin to submarine patents. Rambus got caught on this one, as I recall.
-Patenting someone else's invention. Jerome Lemelson, the grandaddy of patent trolls, did this. He would watch someone else developing a new technology, then after they had it to a workable stage revise the wording of his application to match the technology, patent it for himself and sue the real inventor for infringing his patent. And he amassed a $2 billion fortune during his lifetime doing this.
-Patenting the obvious. Like mixing two dry cereals in a bowl and serving them with milk. Cereality did this one.
-Obtaining a separate patent on each and every little detail of a technology, so that anyone else who accidentally uses any one of these little details in their work will be infringing, and their entire work rendered unusable.
Patents were never intended to be used as a club, to beat people over the head with to extort money out of them. And that is exactly the purpose of most of the strategies I have listed above.

These are all abusive uses of patents, and it's high time for something to be done to stop it. And be sure you aren't yourself engaged in using one of these abusive strategies.

Posted by: wvhillbilly   Posted on: 05/23/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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