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Blocking competing software

Revision as of 18:10, 10 June 2009 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (Higher prices: Category:Arguments)

Software patents reduce the number of features, they reduce the number of products (thus reducing competition), and they block compatibility between software packages.

Higher prices

The cost of all these patents has to be paid by someone, often the users.

Software Freedom Law Center estimates that, since Microsoft has had to pay more than $4 billion due to patent suits, the users have ended up paying $20 per copy of Microsoft's Windows operating system.[1]