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Software progress happens without patents

Revision as of 08:33, 1 March 2010 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (External links: syntax)

Not only are there studies showing that patents are blocking innovation and research, but there is also decades of proof that software progress happens without patents.

Examples

History shows that software innovation and research clearly do not need patents.

Microsoft Windows 95

Microsoft DOS and Windows 95 are two examples. In 1995, Microsoft had only 77 patents.[1]

After Microsoft attained a dominant market position, they started saying patents were necessary for software development, but they actually wrote their software before they started getting patents.

GNU/Linux

Free software such as the GNU/Linux and FreeBSD operating systems which were developed without patents.

The WWW and email

The World Wide Web is another example, and email is another.

Is Apple an example?

Apple spent many years developing the base of their system (kernel, libraries, system tools) only to throw it all away and use the equivalent components from FreeBSD. Some research would be needed to find evidence to support this, but it's likely that they patented their base system during development, so it's noteworthy that they discarded their patent-fueled software for a software that was fueled not by patents but by copyright alone.

External links

Why didn't you patent this yourself, if you developed it first?" My reply was "It only took me an hour to build; if I went down to the patent office after every hour of programming, I wouldn't get very much done.

References