[Discuss] more on software patent

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 10/02/2011 09:10 PM, Tom Metro wrote:
> Glad to see the spirited discussion on software patents.
>
> If you want to listen to a decent investigative report on how the patent
> system in general (not specific to software patents) is broken, and
> learn more about how troll companies operate, check out:
>
> "When Patents Attack!"
> http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack
>
> Also:
>
> "The Very Basis Of Our Patent System... Is A Myth"
> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110725/03174515229/very-basis-our-patent-system-is-myth.shtml
>
> The above article comments on this paper:
> http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1856610
>
> and pulls this key quote from it:
>
>   The theory of patent law is based on the idea that a lone genius can
>   solve problems that stump the experts, and that the lone genius will
>   do so only if properly incented. But the canonical story of the lone
>   genius inventor is largely a myth. Surveys of hundreds of significant
>   new technologies show that almost all of them are invented
>   simultaneously or nearly simultaneously by two or more teams working
>   independently of each other. Invention appears in significant part to
>   be a social, not an individual, phenomenon. The result is a real
>   problem for classic theories of patent law. Our dominant theory of
>   patent law doesn't seem to explain the way we actually implement that
>   law.
>
One interesting patent fight is the telephone. But there was a very
nasty fight because Western Union tried to patent the telephone and
nearly got the patent. Another issue on patents that is not Linux
related is patent medicines. Many medicines we use (such as Lipitor) are
patented and as a result we pay a premium for that drug. The drug
companies argue that the patent system provides them with a competitive
advantage so they have the funds to do research on new drugs.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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