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Software patent quality worse than all other fields
Revision as of 10:39, 11 January 2013 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (moved Software is too abstract, software patent quality is terrible to Software patent quality is terrible: the other stuff is now at software is too abstract)
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.
Possible reasons
- Abstract algorithms can be described in so many ways.
- Jargon and lack of tangible components can make a mundane software idea sound technical.
- 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
- Silly patents
- How to read patents
- Why software is different
- Software patents produce legal uncertainty
- The disclosure is useless
- Infringement is unavoidable
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