|
Well the SCO case isn't really a software patent issue; it's about their contract with IBM and copyright (you do seem to know the difference between patent and copyright but it's important to keep the distinction). But there are plenty of other cases that are and it's ludicrous that many of these patents are being granted even under the current rules, and I'm inclined to say software patents shouldn't be allowed in the first place, but perhaps if the USPTO actually did its job they wouldn't be so bad. I understand the difficulty in thoroughly reviewing every patent application, but this is getting ridiculous. The way the patent system is being (ab)used now hardly encourages innovation; it encourages greed and litigation, the new American values. What if someone had patented digital logic for computations or the use of sockets for networking? We might be posting on BBSes now if we were lucky.
|