20 votes

Patent Examiner sides with inventor who claims Google is trying to patent his work he dedicated to the public domain

4 comments

  1. [4]
    smores
    (edited )
    Link
    How do you all feel about software patents as a general rule? It's not something I've looked into all that much, but it seems like there's a lot more harm than good that comes out of it in...

    How do you all feel about software patents as a general rule? It's not something I've looked into all that much, but it seems like there's a lot more harm than good that comes out of it in practice. Not to mention, it's so heavily praised at the tech giants I've worked for that getting a patent is one of the only accomplishments that can earn you an actual physical trophy.

    Are there good arguments in favor of software patents? Is there an example of an existing software patent framework that doesn't have the glaring problems that we have in the US?

    Edit:

    It turns out Wikipedia has an article on the software patent debate. Personally I find the arguments against much more persuading. The two ideological points of contention that I think are most interesting:

    In favor of software patents:

    Hardware and software are often interchangeable - software gives the hardware its value (ex. Amazon Echo, Hue Lightbulb, etc.). The difference between putting certain features in hardware and others in software depends on factors like cost, reliability, and frequency of the change. If people can patent hardware it does not make sense to not be able to also patent the software that is the core of the hardware.

    Against software patents:

    A program is the transcription of an algorithm in a programming language. Since every (Turing-complete) programming language implements Church's lambda calculus by virtue of the Church-Turing thesis, a program is thus the transcription of a mathematical function. Math is not patentable. Therefore, neither is software.

    5 votes
    1. vegetablesupercargo
      Link Parent
      I don't believe software patents do any good. The strongest example of software patents I can think of is MP3. I think you could argue that, without the patent system, MPEG wouldn't have invested...

      I don't believe software patents do any good. The strongest example of software patents I can think of is MP3. I think you could argue that, without the patent system, MPEG wouldn't have invested so much work into developing MP3, and the spread of high-quality psychoacoustic audio codecs would have been delayed by a few years. Even the MP3 case is a little weak, and it's a very outstanding case. Almost always, from what I've seen, software patents are making things worse for people.

      Patents in general maybe make some sense, I don't know, though I think the terms are too long. For software patents, they're ridiculously long. If you are going to allow software patents, they should be like 3 or 4 years tops.

      3 votes
    2. hackergal
      Link Parent
      I think I read somewhere that France doesn't allow patents on software. I wonder if basing a software company over there has any significant advantages over creating one in America or elsewhere.

      I think I read somewhere that France doesn't allow patents on software. I wonder if basing a software company over there has any significant advantages over creating one in America or elsewhere.

    3. jlpoole
      Link Parent
      I'm afraid I cannot address your question and I wanted to acknowledge your inquiry.

      I'm afraid I cannot address your question and I wanted to acknowledge your inquiry.