Quality of software patents is particularly bad
From en.swpat.org
Quality problems can happen in any category of patents, but the quality of software patents is particularly bad.
Contents |
[edit] Possible reasons
- Abstract algorithms can be described in so many ways
- Jargon and lack of tangible components can make a mundane software idea sound technical
- Professionals working in the patents industry only see the ideas submitted for patenting, and therefore fail to realise that they are not qualitatively different from the ideas that good software engineers come up with every day of the week, most of which are considered too obvious to write up and publish
[edit] The ideas are too abstract
In chemistry, ideas are described concretely, such as Trans-6-[2-(3- or 4-carboxamido- substituted pyrrol-1-yl)alkyl]-4-hydroxypyran-2-ones[1]
In software, ideas are described as "point of sale location", "material object", or "information manufacturing machine".
[edit] Examples
- Unbelievable software patents
- FFII's webshop which uses 20 ideas patented in the EU
- Microsoft developer's internal comments about his own patents indecipherable by anyone but a patent attorney
- Some Kodak patents
[edit] Related pages on en.swpat.org
- Raising standards is not our goal
- The disclosure is useless
- Silly patents
- Software patents are unreadable
[edit] External links
| This wiki is part of the End Software Patents campaign (donate). For more information, see: |
