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Do you protect software with patents?

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by maryweilage

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How do you feel about patents for software? Do patents protect any of your company's innovations? Share your thoughts and experiences about software patents, as discussed in this week's Application Developer Management e-newsletter.

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by chriswfl

Patents should NOT be allowed on software. That should be the domain of copyrights. Almost every patent I've seen issued on software doesn't pass the non-obvious test.

by mattiasw

There is a common misconception by programmers about patents and that is that non-software patents are better or more innovative. This isn't true, most patents are obvious when you look at them.

For example, I know about a patent where the process of using infrared light to warm the filling around the glass of an old window in order to renovate the window. It is obvious to anyone that you can use IR-light to warm something.

So assume that all patents are obvious, and then there are two solutions:
1. abolish all patents
2. reduce the time the patent is valid, for example 3-5 years for a software patent is good enough and doesn't stop innovation.

by lotta_anger

While I agree patent protection is important ; we seem to be headed to a state of affairs in which "2+2=4" is going to be patented. I can't think of a software patent issued(I don;t follow this closely) that has hit the courts recently were the ideas weren't so obvious that you can only laugh. We need changes in how this issue is approached. For example most employees are cut out of the fruit of their labor ; companies should not be allowed to sell patents , they should revert to public domain; all patent applications should be peer reviewed and the decisions taken from overworked civil servents who in most case don;t understand the real issues (not a slight on civil servents just a comment on the ability of people to be a generalized and still have enough knowledge to make a informed decision in a specific field

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