Patents Have Become The Nuclear Stockpiling Of The Software Industry
from the select-mutually-from-assured-where-destruction dept
Marten Mickos, CEO of mySQL, has written a piece over at Always-On, explaining (accurately) that the software patent game these days is the equivalent of nuclear stockpiling. You build up as many patents as you can, because you know the competition is, too, and you'll need them to fight off any patent battle. It doesn't need to be this way. In fact, it shouldn't be this way, because all it's doing is slowing down innovation and diverting money away from development to lawyers. Mickos uses the database industry as an example. In the days before software patents, plenty of people took the relational database ideas of Edgar Codd (totally random aside: I had a database professor in college who had the bumper sticker: "Codd is God" in honor of Mr. Codd) and built up a thriving industry, including the standardization of SQL, on which the entire industry is based. While he doesn't say it specifically, the clear implication is that in a world of software patents, that situation wouldn't have existed. Letting everyone build their own implementations based on the idea of relational databases and the standards of SQL allowed a thriving, competitive industry to develop. Copyright laws protect the code. However, when we patent ideas, the first person to come up with the "idea" of a relational database could have patented it -- and simply stopped the competition from happening without coughing up license fees to IBM. As we've said before, innovation is more important than invention. By allowing the inventor to patent an entire concept, it kills the ability to innovate, harming the entire economy.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Software Patents are Doomed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stockpiling Patents
It is true that IBM, Microsoft and other corporations have amassed large numbers of patents. But the big players can be sued for infringement by small players, too (e.g., the recent half billion dollar judgment against Microsoft for allegedly infringing a patent belonging to the University of California and Eolas). Without software patent protection, the innovation of small companies is truly at the mercy of larger competitors. Imagine how different things might have been if Tim Berners-Lee had asserted a patent covering HTML against Microsoft during the browser wars.
In my mind, the stockpiling of software patents is a symptom of the real problem – an overwhelmed Patent and Trademark Office that is unable to do a proper job of screening out junk patent applications. The PTO needs to have a budget to hire more and better qualified examiners, and to perform in-depth prior art searches. Until Congress decides to change matters, I’m afraid things will get worse before they get better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Stockpiling Patents
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
If what you say is true, then why don't lawyers back off? It's precisely the action of companies AND law firms that take on these stupid patent lawsuits that's killing this industry. The stockpiling happens because they need to protect themselves from Johnny "I'm going to sue you". It's getting ridiculous.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
Not much of a glimmer, companies will feel (have felt!) forced to push litigation because their patents are almost expired and worthless.
Canada anyone?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They are more like land mines I would say...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]