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Talk:Protecting small inventors myth

Initial thoughts

Software patents if indexed and drafted correctly could be used to prevent TROLLS

By "trolls", I guess you mean competitors in the industry who use patents aggressively. I think the standard definition is companies that don't make software and just focus on litigation. Maybe another term can be used.

A database of software methods is required that illustrates both software available to the public and software 'protected' by patents.

This would be a big help, but it's pretty much impossible to tell which software is covered/protected/endangered by software patents. Is OpenOffice.org? Firefox? Microsoft Word? (The latter is surely covered by Microsoft's own patents, but how many other companies have patents that cover some of the features of Word? Does i4i's patent cover some features of Word? Each patent needs multiple court cases to figure out if it applies to one piece of software.

I'll comment the issues more thoroughly soon. Ciaran 03:42, 10 February 2010 (UTC)


Removed Content

I removed the paragraphs that showed just ideas about how things could be IF they were different. But those paragraphs don't provide arguments opposing or supporting the thesis of the article.

Here are they

"Software patents if indexed and drafted correctly could be used to prevent TROLLS and provide useful information. A database of software methods is required that illustrates both software available to the public and software 'protected' by patents.
Although time consuming, a running database like Chemical Abstracts and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for software methods would work well for STOPPING TROLLS and BAD PATENTS. It just needs to be indexed, have a reliable history, and forward/backward citations. Patent indexing should describe a) method protected in common terms, and b) diagram of method using standard programming diagrams.
I4I used software patents to protect from Microsoft (one of the biggest TROLLS behind IBM). Microsoft received a demo from I4I, liked the way I4I XML editor worked, fired I4I, and designed the exact same function into their software. I4I is a small company that was protected by software patents.
The presentation by "Digital America" below sums it up best describing how software patents are better for small companies.
- Argument: “Big” firms will be helped by software patents and “small” ones hurt.
- Answer: Wrong. While patents help big companies too, they are far more important to small firms that otherwise would not be able to keep big firms from copying their successes.

Hi. Yeh, it's an unconvincing, unsubstantiated presentation. We should have some kind of explanation of their point of view though, in order to thoroughly dismantle it :-) But you're right that their explanation isn't a particularly worthwhile one - the presentation boils down to "Oh not it doesn't!" Ciaran 12:44, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Merge with Some SMEs like software patents myth ??

The two articles are currently too similar.

Is it one topic and should be merged? or should I just try harder to distinguish them. Maybe the two topics are:

  • Lone inventor myth (i.e. inventor without any company backing her)
  • Lies spread about the position of most SMEs

. Ciaran 17:26, 21 August 2011 (EDT)