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. This is probably a fundamental problem that can't be avoided in a domain as abstract as software.

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".

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. It's impossible for a patent examiner to judge obviousness. Software developers use so many ideas during their work, only a tiny percent ever get submitted to the patent office or otherwise published.

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
• Why software is different

External links

• Why are Software Patents so Trivial? other version (possibly identical), by FFII
• Is software too abstract to be patented?, 18 Nov 2010, Rob Tiller (Red Hat)
• Why Software is Abstract, by PolR, 7 Oct 2010, Groklaw
• An Open Response to the USPTO — Physical Aspects of Mathematics, 26 Sep 2010, Groklaw