8 comments

  • Sytten 9 hours ago ago

    I would argue that patent in software either need to be eliminated or you need to provide full source code of your thing. And it is needs to be narrow.

    Right now you can provide vague bloc diagrams of a vague process and it is enough. But if we take the intent of patents it was to protect the inventor IN EXCHANGE for sharing the knowledge. The second part seems to have been forgotten...

  • patrakov 8 hours ago ago

    This sounds like a machine for creating patents that are known in advance to be invalid because of the prior art from which the machine mechanically derives its allegedly sellable proposals. In other words, patent fraud.

  • glimshe 9 hours ago ago

    Can anyone name ONE software innovation that wouldn't exist if we didn't have software patents? 99% of enforcement is rent seeking and trolling.

    • jareklupinski 8 hours ago ago

      > ONE software innovation that wouldn't exist if we didn't have software patents

      maybe not in the spirit, but at least one person had to have found a better way of doing something while trying to circumnavigate a patent

  • sschueller 9 hours ago ago

    Patents need to expire quicker. Things change too rapidly in some sectors and these patents hinder innovation IMO.

    I can see the need for areas where I takes years and a lot of capital risk but in some sectors this is just not the case anymore.

    • Mountain_Skies 9 hours ago ago

      They need to be enforced far more narrowly and claims of patent violations subject to wider definitions of prior art. It's crazy how broadly some patents are on things that have long existed.

      • newsclues 8 hours ago ago

        That is a hard problem to enforce. Limiting patents to months or only a year or two is much easier (and cheaper) to enforce.

    • newsclues 8 hours ago ago

      Time is a great way to change the regulatory environment.

      If you need to build a factory to produce a product, the investment and time scale make long term patents reasonable.

      With software, it’s not the same time/$ investment and therefore the term of protection should be much shorter.