MCADCafe Editorial Jeff Rowe
Jeffrey Rowe has over 40 years of experience in all aspects of industrial design, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing. On the publishing side, he has written over 1,000 articles for CAD, CAM, CAE, and other technical publications, as well as consulting in many capacities in the design … More » Are Software Patents Relevant?March 31st, 2016 by Jeff Rowe
While proponents (usually with deep pockets) have touted their benefits, software patents have also been used in the software industry to suppress innovation, kill competition, generate undeserved royalties, and make patent attorneys rich. So I ask, are software patents still relevant? It’s no secret that the engineering software business is extremely competitive, as it always has been. The engineering software business has also proven to be a very fertile ground for lawsuits regarding patent infringement, reverse engineering, and outright copying and pasting blocks of code. Could stronger patent protection have prevented this from happening? Maybe yes, but probably, no.
The Danger of Software Patents – Richard Stallman Software patents has been hotly debated for years. Opponents to them have gained more visibility with less resources through the years than pro-patent supporters. Through these debates, arguments for and critiques against software patents have been focused mostly on the economic consequences of software patents, but there is a lot more to it than just money.
The arguments for software patents include:
The arguments against software patents include:
Linus Torvalds: Software Patents Make No Sense Lastly, let’s admit it – software is different than physical objects/devices because they are designed only in terms of their function. The inventor of a typical electromechanical device must design new physical features to qualify for a patent. On the other hand, a software developer need only design new functions to create a working embodiment of the program. [1] Software is a component of a machine. The computer’s hardware is generic; it performs functions that are common to all of the software that is capable of being executed on the computer. Each software program that is capable of executing on the computer is a component of the computer. [1] Computers “design” and build the structure of executable software. Thus, software developers do not design the executable software’s physical structure because they merely provide the functional terms.[1] So, do software patents fulfill their intended purpose and are they still relevant? I would argue largely, no. Some possible solutions I would propose include examining software patent submissions that are truly innovative, streamlining the patent process, making it more difficult to patent software, making it easier to invalidate software patents, and shortening the patent protection period from 20 to 10 years. Am I an expert on patents? No, but I do have experience, having been granted three patents. I didn’t get rich from them, primarily because I had to sign over the patent rights to my employers at the time as a condition of employment. However, I did receive a total of $3.00 for my three patents, while two of the patents went on to earn my employers several million dollars. Tough to take, but mine was hardly an isolated experience. I guess that’s what I can chalk it up to – expensive experience. [1] Robert Plotkin.“Intellectual Property and the Process of Invention: Why Software is Different”. Law Office of Robert Plotkin. Tags: innovation, lawsuit, litigation, software patent |