IBM: Amazon violates our patents

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Patent System Is Broken - Lawyers Win Not Us

As someone who is currently involved in software patent litigation (we are s s/w shop that is being sued), I can attest that the system is supremely broken. Here are just a few things that you "patents protect inventor" posters might want to consider:
1) A typical patent infringement case costs 700K to litigate - the cost of being found innocent is too high for most small to medium sized-companies even if you are right
2) The patent system has almost no way for normal people to submit the body of prior work (called prior art) that would make a patent seem ridiculous. Once the patent paper is filed, the lawyers go and win.
3) The PTO charter does not extend into the court system. So, you will find that patent owners have numerous ways to hide or mischaracterize facts to their advantadge.
4) software should be copyrighted not patented. Like a picture or a painting. There is no reason why I can't use software to build _another_ web browser, another operating system, another spreadsheet, another zip utility, another web service, as long as it doesn't look exactly like yours. A patent prevents you from making something that functions essentially the same as yours.
5) If you insist on having software patents, then make the owner pay if they lose in court. That atleast would remove the unfair advantadge.

I could go on -- s/w patents do not work. The EU recently stopped issuing them. We should follow their lead.

Posted by: codesaildrink   Posted on: 10/31/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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