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Banning software patents
There are two ways to write a law that would protect software developers, users, and distributors from patents:
- Excluding software from patentability - exclude software from the subject matter that can be patented
- Shielding software from litigation - declare that use and distribution of software can never constitute infringement
The latter is an alternative, suggested in 2012 by Richard Stallman. A third way would be to abolish the entire patent system, for all domains, but this would require many times more work and there's no consensus on whether it's a good idea. There are advantages in focusing only on software.
For advice about terminology, see: