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Yeah, the definition of a patent is supposed to be a limited monopoly granted on an invention where the invention is not obvious to an expert in the field.
Notice how business rules, UI gimmicks and the like shouldn't fall into this category. Also notice the non obvious part.
The biggest aprt that sucks is the patent office seems to want to put through as many patents as possible, as they feel the more they grant the more they are stimulating the economy. This is total junk I realise, but the impact is that patents are awarded seemingly without merit and leaving it up to the court system to sort out. Unfortunatley that means if you're a small developer/company/entity you're likely to lose against big players and bored legal departments.
Granting the limited monopoly is fine if you restrict heavily the parts that the invention needs to be non-obvious to an expert in the field. When the latter breaks down, large companies and lawyers are the only to profit.
I could go on, but it's an uphill battle. The patent system will cripple software innovation if not reformed. Don't even get me started on copyright reforms.
-ymmv
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I think the basic idea of rewarding a good idea with a short term monopole is principally acceptable.
But I have 6 main points of critique towards the current system.
1. In our fast lived times, running times of 25 years (and more) are just too long.
2. Originally only solutions, not ideas were patentable. So you had to deliver a working gadget at the patent bureau, not just an: This can be done in such a way or the other.
3. Software patents nowadays often cover what can be done not how it is done, which is pretty absurd.
4. The original thought of patents was, making the solution public, thus furthering progress and rewarding the inventor for giving away his secrets. Todays sw-patents don't make source code public, so there is no sense in rewarding the owners anything.
5. With 90% of the patents being either not new or not relevant, it seams that the patent system has gotten out of hand coming very close to organized crime (e.g.in europe software patents were granted at a time when they were definitly illegal, giving companies an advantage, who participated in this activity)
6. (Software)Patents are now mostly used to hedge against claims of other companies. This and the fact that patent legislation is very complicated, gives big companies an overly big leverage against smaller companies of even simple persons.
I believe that most of these points are systematic and cannot be reformed away. Thus I pledge for no patents at all.
Wolfgang Reichl
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Not all patentable technology is in code. e.g. Amazon's One Click buying, MS's recent double-click patent etc.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Ian Darling wrote:
"and our loonies usually end up doing things like Monty Python."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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It has already expired. Even the Iraqis may use it now.  
--
Ich bin Joachim von Hassel, und ich bin Pilot der Bundeswehr.
Welle: Erdball - F104-G Starfighter
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