Re: Fwd: "Recommendations for the patent system of the future" from The Da nish Board of Technology - now published

What a horrible mess. In places they seem to have grasped the issues but then
then come out with lines like this:

"It should, however, be noted that Open Source also builds on well-specified
rights (copyright), and that no inherent conflict of interest exists between
patents and Open Source. If patents are made available under the same conditions
as copyrights, they can be included in Open Source." [page 29]

Earlier in the report I noticed  what may just be an over-eagerness not to be
seen to be saying anything definite, but it bears an unfortunate resemblance to
the "he said, she said" 'balance' of journalists:

"One study even found that the use of (strategic) software patents in the
individual firm is linked with less R&D.[54] Conversely, other studies point to
the fact that software patents have generated more innovation.[55]" [page 21]

[54] is Bessen & Hunt's "Empirical Look at Software Patents", [55] is "Sheehan
et al. 2004" which I found was a survey by questionnaire, resulting in 105
responses from various companies, most of which were in the machinery,
chemical and pharmaceuticals industries anyway and which doesn't appear to 
"point to the fact that software patents have generated more innovation" by any
stretch of the imagination.

I thought for one unpleasant minute there that they'd actually conjured up the
evidence you were asking for in the IIPI forum, Jonas:

"(if you claim there must be at least an equally large list of economic studies
which says the inverse: reference, please. I've heard that one already a lot
before, and yet that magical list still has to materialise)"

;-)