Re:Software patents should be abolished
by xiaoma on Sunday September 27, 2009 @12:37PM
(#846988)
I agree that the system is a mess, but defining exactly what "software" patents are is difficult. In machine inventions, the actual invention is increasingly happening in the software.
Patenting an organic molecule or a gene is a different, and also flawed case. But most machines, business plans and other inventions could be reduced to software. As 3d printing becomes more common, this will get more and more common.
Algorithms currently aren't patentable, but due to semantic manipulation of the meaning of "algorithm", people are patenting algorithms by calling them a "system that does x". If software patents were abolished, what would prevent applicants from using the exact same sort of strategy to get around them? Rather than patenting a piece of code, people would file a patent for a machine that does everything the code in question does.
Patenting an organic molecule or a gene is a different, and also flawed case. But most machines, business plans and other inventions could be reduced to software. As 3d printing becomes more common, this will get more and more common.
Algorithms currently aren't patentable, but due to semantic manipulation of the meaning of "algorithm", people are patenting algorithms by calling them a "system that does x". If software patents were abolished, what would prevent applicants from using the exact same sort of strategy to get around them? Rather than patenting a piece of code, people would file a patent for a machine that does everything the code in question does.