Software patent quality worse than all other fields

Quality problems can happen in any category of patents, but the quality of software patents is particularly bad.

Possible reasons

1. Abstract algorithms can be described in so many ways
2. Jargon and lack of tangible components can make a mundane software idea sound technical
3. Professionals working in the patents industry only see the ideas submitted for patenting, and therefore fail to realise that they are not qualitatively different from the ideas that good software engineers come up with every day of the week, most of which are considered too obvious to write up and publish

The ideas are too abstract

In chemistry, ideas are described concretely, such as Trans-6-[2-(3- or 4-carboxamido- substituted pyrrol-1-yl)alkyl]-4-hydroxypyran-2-ones

In software, ideas are described as "point of sale location", "material object", or "information manufacturing machine".

Examples

• Unbelievable software patents
• FFII's webshop which uses 20 ideas patented in the EU
• Microsoft developer's internal comments about his own patents indecipherable by anyone but a patent attorney
• Some Kodak patents

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• Raising standards is not our goal
• The disclosure is useless
• Silly patents
• Software patents are unreadable
• How to read patents

External links

• Why are Software Patents so Trivial? other version (possibly identical)

http://www.researchoninnovation.org/swconf/bessenslides.pdf