The objective of the patent system is to protect innovations and innovators. I think the world needs to seek some other means to serve the purpose.
As I was reading the news on
Microsoft demanding $15 per each Samsung android phone sold, I enjoyed some of the users' brilliant comments. This exactly shows how business are working around the patents to cripple innovation which is competition.
The below comment highlights the issue.
No, the point is that the software patent process in the states stifles competition. For instance – this is one of the supposed infringements – “One of our patents enables users to select text, see what is selected via highlighting, and expand the selection in either direction as desired. (U.S. Patent No. 6,891,551)”
So tell me how another company is supposed to “innovate” round this? How else can you select text on a smartphone? Patents were designed to cover actual physical devices and systems – and competitors could come up with a new way of doing things. Imagine if a company had a patent, not on hardware ways to make a TV screen brighter, but on the concept of TV itself? e.g. “A patent that describes a system by which a user may view images on a screen and vary the image by means of a push button remote mechanism”. Most of these software patents should never have been invented in the first place. I’ll also point out that the above MS patent was issued IN 2005!! (
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,891,551.PN.&OS=PN/6,891,551&RS=PN/6,891,551) So no-one was able to select text or vary the select before then? What a load of crap. -- by colesadam
Want to know what sarcasm means? Read the below comment
I should go patent “an item that is circular in shape that will move around and repeat in a repetitive fashion so that it may carry objects held down by Earth’s gravity across the Earth’s crust.” Has anyone patented a wheel? Why not I? -- by Cliff Porter
So tell me how another company is supposed to “innovate” round this? How else can you select text on a smartphone? Patents were designed to cover actual physical devices and systems – and competitors could come up with a new way of doing things. Imagine if a company had a patent, not on hardware ways to make a TV screen brighter, but on the concept of TV itself? e.g. “A patent that describes a system by which a user may view images on a screen and vary the image by means of a push button remote mechanism”. Most of these software patents should never have been invented in the first place. I’ll also point out that the above MS patent was issued IN 2005!! (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,891,551.PN.&OS=PN/6,891,551&RS=PN/6,891,551) So no-one was able to select text or vary the select before then? What a load of crap. -- by colesadam