Re:Abstract Ideas Don’t Deserve Patents
by hackinthebochs on Sunday March 30, 2014 @06:21PM
(#7498217)
Advocating for abolishing software patents is saying that software is a special case. This is not obviously so (the 'software is math' argument is weak), and so any argument one puts forward for abolishing software patents likely applies to many other areas. It is obvious there is a problem with the quality of software patents being issued. It is not obvious that software patents in general should be abolished. After all, is it not possible to have an invention that is largely or completely software?
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In some areas, the R&D required to come out with a prototype is substantial -- in medicine you have costly clinical trials for instance. Free riders would benefit a lot more from that than software innovations.