Difference between revisions of "20 years is too long"
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==Duration of patents== | ==Duration of patents== | ||
Patents last for 20 years. This term has been set by [[TRIPS]]. | Patents last for 20 years. This term has been set by [[TRIPS]]. | ||
Revision as of 15:17, 19 March 2009
Patent procedures are too slow, and patents last too long for software.
Duration of patents
Patents last for 20 years. This term has been set by TRIPS.
Patents exist to encourage researchers to publish their ideas. The researcher gets a temporary monopoly, and in return, society gets access to the idea when the patent expires.
For software, almost all 20-year old ideas are useless.
Time required for grant
In most countries, a granted patent is considered valid starting from the application date. This means Person A can apply for a patent, and Person B can develop a product. If Person B looks at all published patents, they will not see Person A's patent which is still being processed. If Person A's application is accepted, they can immediately accuse Person B of infringing the patent.
The unfair situation can happen in any field of development, but it's aggravated in the case of software because the development cycle of software is often very fast.
