Re: software patents threaten open source

On Sun, 2004-01-25 at 19:10, Gerald Cheves wrote:
> And is the patent process so expensive and so arduous that a small 
> software developer could not easily get a patent?  What would make 
> software patents "technically illegal?" The idea of having to consider 
> protecting software with patents seems to be anti-open source.
> 

I was looking into getting a patent on a device i was/am inventing. It
was both difficult and expensive to do so. When I say expensive, I mean
of the order of hundreds. This is in the noise for a medium to large
corporation, but for an individual...

The difficulty comes in actually writing the application. The hard part
is in creating the scope. This is what your patent actually covers. Too
narrow, and it does bugger all (you've wasted your time and money), too
wide and someone else can claim prior art, invalidating your patent.

It is also very difficult to actually work out if what you are
submitting has already been patented. You can pay a pro (several hundred
pounds) to look it up, or try to do it yourself. I suspect that I could
do as good a job as anyone I could pay in doing the searching, at the
cost of much time. (incidentally, I did not find anything that would
invalidate my application, but all that means is that I didn't find it).

The net result was that I still do not have a patent, on a device that I
still think has massive potential.

Contrary to what the governments might claim, the patent system does not
make it easy or cheap for an individual inventor. Corporations on the
other hand, can simply employ a person to do the whole thing.

The difficulties involved coupled with the massive ambiguity involved in
software patenting would lead to a situation where large corporations
try to patent everything they can (and get most of them due to the
technocretins granting patents) and individuals are left with no ability
to counter.

hen
-- 
Henry Gomersall
Trinity College, Cambridge
http://www.heng.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

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