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Editing Silly patents

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'''Silly patents''' can be useful for explaining how difficult it is for examiners to evaluate patent applications on software ideas.  They can show how [[software is too abstract|abstract]] software ideas are.

They can also be a distraction.  They can make the listener think that the main problem is the examination process, letting silly patents through.  They could think that if there were more examiners, or if each one had more time, we could avoid silly patents and then the system would work.  If they think that, then you haven't correctly explained the real problem.

Also, many news stories about silly patents are about ''applications'' for silly patents.  Anyone can apply for a patent on anything, so these stories are not very consequential.  Stories of silly patents that have been ''granted'' are more useful.

==Countries that grant certain patents without review==

Some countries have [[utility models and innovation patents]], which are a special, separate type of patent which gets approved with little or no review.  The review only happens if the patent is contested or used in a court case.  So, when the Australian patent office grants a patent on the wheel,<ref>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html</ref> it's not because the examiners are stupid, it's because there was no examination.

For a small number of countries, such as [[South Africa]], all patents are like this.

==Related pages on {{SITENAME}}==
* [[Analogies]]
* [[Example software patents]]
* [[Quality of software patents is particularly bad]]
* [[Divine e-commerce patents‎]] - Divine inc. asked e-commerce companies to pay royalties on its "shopping cart" patent

==External links==
* [http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/why-software-patents-are-a-joke-literally/2039 Why software patents are a joke, literally], 17 Aug 2010, former [[Sun]] employee James Gosling tells of the office competition to get the silliest patent
** Also: [http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/08/17/0437242 Slashdot discussion]

===Slashdot stories about specific silly patents===
Slashdot publishes ''a lot'' of stories on this topic.  You may find more by looking at the [[news links]] page(s) and sorting the table by the Website column.
* [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/01/04/2321226/HP-Patents-Bignum-Implementation-From-1912 HP Patents Bignum Implementation From 1912] (See also: [[HP]])
* [http://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/12/30/166220/USPTO-Awards-LOL-Patent-To-IBM USPTO Awards LOL Patent To IBM]
* [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/26/159249/IBM-Wants-Patent-For-Regex-SSN-Validation IBM Wants Patent For Regex SSN Validation]
* [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/16/1917253/IBM-Patents-Changing-Color-of-E-Mail-Text IBM Patents Changing Color of E-Mail Text]
* [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/08/2046215/IBM-Invents-40-Minute-Meetings IBM "Invents" 40-Minute Meetings]
* [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/16/1311236/Google-Patents-Country-Specific-Content-Blocking Google Patents Country-Specific Content Blocking] (See also: [[Google]])

==References==
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@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 ==Related pages on {{SITENAME}}==
-* [[Raising standards is not our goal]]
+* [[Analogies]]
 * [[Example software patents]]
 * [[Quality of software patents is particularly bad]]