Software-patent battle set to flare up

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Yes, let's

The US Patent Office, IP experts and economists long successfully fended of software patenting in the U.S. So the good old USA was a laggard in innovation and technology, apparently. Strange, nobody noticed. Seems to me that we were at the forefront of technology, and the big breakthroughs - operating systems, file directories, hypertext, spreadsheets, GUI, etc - came through just fine.

So you would contend that once the PTO was overturned (or interpreted court rulings as overturning), we must have suddenly seen the floodgates of innovation opened. Why don't you now point out the bounties of that watershed year. Surely there must have been many who were holding back from investing in software research, because they were dissatisfied with the protection afforded by trade secrets, copyright and complilation, that were now emoldened to launch us on that brave new path and bring forth the cornucopia of innovations that should by now be finding their way into the market place. There must be a burgeoning of software research labs that did not exist before software patenting. But just where is the evidence of the dramatic change? Please bring forth the evidence for those of us who tend toward skepticism.

We have certainly borne witness to the downside of patenting, as any advance usually has a downside. The PTO plunged into "crisis" by the flood of worthless applications, an ever growing backlog and the diminishment of the value of a patent. The PTO admits that it could not even theoretically devise a valid search engine in the software arts. But of course that is just naysaying. Please enlighten all as to the benefit the U.S. citizens, who are the grantors of patents, and our economy have reaped from admission of software into the realm of patents.

Posted by: IT_User   Posted on: 10/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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