Software patents wiki: home page
From en.swpat.org
en.swpat.org is a wiki that you can edit. Our goal is to document the case against software patents worldwide. To get started, see Discuss this wiki and finding things on en.swpat.org. en.swpat.org is hosted by End Software Patents (donate) and can be used by anyone and any organisation. Articles so far: 373.
Stories from news.swpat.org
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Why software patents are bad
- Used for sabotage rather than competition
- Speculation
- Software patents harm SMEs
- Software is math
- Quality of software patents is particularly bad
- Publishing information is made dangerous
- Preventing competition
- Patents are too expensive for individuals
- Patent trolls
- Less choice, more monopolies
- Jobs and skills
- Infringement is unavoidable
- Incompatible timespans
- Harm to standards
- Harm to education
- Freedom of expression
- Fear of lawsuits prevents founding of new startups
- Costs of the patent system to governments
- Blocking useful freedoms
- Blocking innovation and research
- Analogies
- All solutions are failing
- All businesses are targets
(See also: Category:Arguments, and the article list of arguments)
Dispelling myths
- Protecting small inventors myth
- Some SMEs like software patents myth
- Patent standards here are higher than the USA
Partial steps toward our goal
Insufficient and failing remedies
The following are not solutions. None will solve the problem, many are inefficient wastes of time, and some even make the situation worse.
Insufficient and failing remedies:
- Defensive patent pools
- Prior art database including "defensive publication"
- Patent clauses in software licences
- Community patent review
- Invalidate the most harmful
- Raising examination standards
- Defensive patenting
- Changing company patent policy
- Insurance against patent litigation doesn't work
- Antitrust doesn't work
See also: Category:Non-solutions
Campaigning notes
- Organising a campaign
- Formulating arguments
- Making leaflets
- What not to suggest: Insufficient and failing remedies
Helping out
- Links to be processed
- Ideas for info to gather
- Please help find these documents
- Talk:Discuss this wiki
- There's a sandbox page for test edits
- Category:En.swpat.org
Specific domains
- micro-blogging patents
- audio-video patents
- XML patents
- Webpage and web service patents
- Image processing patents
- Harm to standards
Unsorted
- Corruption and bullying
- Free software
- Legal wordings
- List of recordings and transcripts
- Patent promises
- Patents possibly violated by swpat.org
- Related Wikipedia articles
- Should the whole patent system be axed?
- Sources of software patent news
- Technical solutions, not technical problems
- Timeline
- Webpages that disappeared
- Which sectors are for and against
- Who lobbied for software patents
- Why software is different
- Patent lawyer
- Competition law defense
Countries and regions
Argentina • Australia • Belgium • Brazil • Canada • Chile • China, People's Republic of • Costa Rica • Cuba • Europe • Finland • France • Germany • India • Ireland • Israel • Japan • Malaysia • Mexico • New Zealand • Philippines • Poland • South Africa • South Korea • Spain • Sweden • Switzerland • USA • United Kingdom • Uruguay • Venezuela
See also: Countries and regions
Organisations
AIPLA • AIPPI • Acacia • Adobe • Amazon • Apple • BEUC • Blackboard • Borland • c4c • Canonical • CEA-PME • EFF • End Software Patents • Eolas • FFII • FSF • FSFE • Ericsson • Google • Groklaw • IBM • Intel • Intellectual Ventures • IPAC • LPF • Microsoft • Nokia • Novell • OIN • Opera • Oracle • Philips • Red Hat • SAP • Siemens • SFLC • Sun • TiVo • UEAPME • W3C • WIPO • Xerox and Fuji Xerox • Yahoo
(See also: Category:Organisations)
International agreements
Do our proposals exclude this from patentability?
- Anti-lock braking example (no)
- mp3 audio example (yes)
- digital camera image processing example (yes)
- Other analyses of the patentability of specific ideas
Context and introductions
- General introduction
- Analogies
- Choose your words
- What is patentable?
- Do software patents exist in my area?
- Searching for patents
- Reading case law
- Invention as a whole
- Patentable subject matter
- Software patents
- Technical solutions, not technical problems
- Patenting software in ROM
- Glossary
Specific patents and infringement suits
- Xerox vs Google and Yahoo, 2010
- Software Tree vs Red Hat, 2009
- Microsoft vs TomTom, 2008
- Trend Micro vs Barracuda, 2008
- Microsoft vs AT&T, 2006
- Uniloc vs Microsoft, 2009
- Fotomedia Technologies vs the World 2009
- Example software patents
Papers, studies, books
- Books about software and patents
- Studies on economics and innovation
- Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, Andrew Gowers for HM Treasury UK, December 2006
- Rethinking the European ICT agenda, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, September 2004
- Innovation in Germany, Windows of opportunity, Deutsche Bank Research, June 2004
- An Empirical Look at Software Patents, Bessen and Hunt, March 2004
- US FTC report on innovation, US Federal Trade Commission, October 2003
- Network Competition Through Regulation report, German Monopoly Commission, 2002
- The EuroLinux petition
- Studies by concerned parties:
Statements
People
Michel Barnier • Tim Berners Lee • James Bessen • Dan Bricklin • John Carmack • Brad Feld • Andy Grove • Erik Josefsson • Brian Kahin • David A. Kennedy • Ben Klemens • Donald Knuth • Bradley Kuhn • Timothy B. Lee • Michael Meurer • Eben Moglen • Ciarán O'Riordan • François Pellegrini • Bruce Perens • Dan Ravicher • Pamela Samuelson • Richard Stallman • Mark Webbink • David A. Wheeler
