Meanwhile, the USPTO has a huge backlog of 1, 000s of software patent applications to review.
FORBES: People Should Listen to Computer Programmers about Software Patents
In 1965, a programmer at Applied Digital Research (ADR), named Marty Goetz, filed the first software patent.
FORBES: The Big Fix #3: How To Untangle The Mess With Software Patents
This would be an improvement, to be sure, but only because the optimal length for a software patent is 0 years.
Among other things, he notes that in fast-moving industries being first to market is a bigger benefit than software patent protections.
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Of course, a similar argument could be made about any software patent.
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When the Supreme Court first invalidated a software patent in 1972, it specifically invited Congress to clarify whether it intended software to be patentable.
So Google should consider going further and endorse software patent abolition.
By the end of the 1990s, all practical limits to patents on software had been dismantled, sparking the software patent arms race that continues to this day.
FORBES: As Supreme Court Software Patent Ban Turns 40, It's Time To Stop Ignoring It
So any special rules for software patents will just push innovators and their patent lawyers to seek patent protection for hardware that achieves the same outcome, obtaining the synthetic equivalent of a software patent.
FORBES: Two Challenges to Fixing Software Patents (Part 2 of 3)
The Supreme Court first upheld a software patent in 1981, involving software controlling a process for curing rubber, and since then patents have become a vital bulwark protecting the assets of big companies like IBM and Microsoft.
FORBES: The Supreme Court Keeps Business-Method Patents Alive
Rather, the software patent debate pits the patent bar and large software companies like Microsoft and IBM, which have tens of thousands of patents, against rank-and-file programmers and up-and-coming entrepreneurs for whom the threat of frivolous litigation is a growing disincentive to innovation.
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The obvious answer is that most people in the software industry believed that the Supreme Court had excluded most software from patent protection.
FORBES: The Federal Circuit, Not the Supreme Court, Legalized Software Patents
The Supreme Court did uphold a patent on a software-controlled rubber-curing machine in 1981, but its ruling emphasized that this was because the patent covered a physical machine that happened to have a software component, rather than claiming a software technique by itself.
FORBES: As Supreme Court Software Patent Ban Turns 40, It's Time To Stop Ignoring It
If software engineers hate patent laws, they sure do seem ok with making use of the system to their potential benefit.
FORBES: People Should Listen to Computer Programmers about Software Patents
Microsoft contends that a judge used the wrong standard and says the patent office did not consider that i4i had used its HTML editor in software before receiving a patent.
It may not be possible to define software patents precisely, it may be easy for patent applicants to game any software-specific rules, and we have to find a way to remain in compliance with our treaty obligations.
FORBES: Two Challenges to Fixing Software Patents (Part 2 of 3)
For a long time, software was considered by patent law as a form of applied math.
FORBES: The Big Fix #3: How To Untangle The Mess With Software Patents
On balance, the availability of a patent for software or business methods provides little incentive to developers.
FORBES: At CES, Companies Large and Small Bash Broken Patent System
In practice what this means is that in order to patent a software idea, it has to be embedded in some sort of hardware.
FORBES: The Big Fix #3: How To Untangle The Mess With Software Patents
By the way, it is notable that you have no evidence to even back up your sensational assertion about software engineer opinion on patent law.
FORBES: People Should Listen to Computer Programmers about Software Patents
First, you note that only software engineers complain about patent laws.
FORBES: People Should Listen to Computer Programmers about Software Patents
There are several reasons to believe that society overpays when it provides patent protection for software.
Oracle testified at the Patent Office opposing software patents in 1994.
FORBES: The Federal Circuit, Not the Supreme Court, Legalized Software Patents
Called "Motion DNA", the patent-pending software developed by Navisens detects a person's realistic location and position inside a building in 3D and in real time.
Microsoft and Facebook declined to discuss the patents, which represent the lion's share of the patent portfolio the software giant agreed to buy earlier this month from AOL Inc.
In the separate decision involving Microsoft, the court said that the software company was liable for patent infringement by installing a digital speech encoder on versions of its Windows operating system that are copied and sold overseas.
Worse, the company's chief asset--its nifty software--still has no patent or trademark protection (see radar graph).
Software developer Intertrust Technologies filed a patent infringement suit against Apple over 15 patents related to security.
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