Patent Pop Quiz
Pop quiz: Who said, "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the [computer] industry would be at a complete standstill today."
C'mon, you know this...!
Yup, Bill Gates!
It comes from a 1991 memo to senior executives that went on: "some large company will patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of our profits as they want."
How attitudes change. Sixteen years on and with a portfolio of more than 6,000 patents, it's Microsoft who are trying to bring the industry to a standstill and bleed it white.
These snippets come from a New York Times op-ed by Timothy B. Lee who concludes;
"Microsoft’s own history contradicts... claim[s] that patents are essential for technological breakthroughs: Microsoft produced lots of innovative software before it received its first software patent in 1988. As more and more lawsuits rock the industry, we should ask if software patents are stifling innovation. Bill Gates certainly thought so in 1991, even if he won’t admit it today."
PC World is New Zealand’s top selling computing and technology magazine.
Comments
The U.S patent laws are a sad joke but unfortunatly the jokes on us as the US uses all it politicaL and financal clout to force the rest of the world to uphold US patents. It's not surprising since US politicans rely on and cater to big business in order to get elected. People shouldn't be able to patent an idea. Patents should only be granted for new inventions and products and only in order to stop others copying someone elses work. If you invent a mousetrap you should only be able to take a patent out on your spacific design of the trap , not on all mousetraps produced after your patent is granted no mater what the design. Mearly thinking a mousetrap would be a handy thing shouldn't intitle you to royalties from every mousetrap sold.
Posted by: Adam | June 17, 2007 4:38 AM
To state the obvious .... 16 years ago most people thought copyright would be enough to protect software innovation.
There's been a lot of developments since then which have made patents more important. Things that are "too obvious" can't be patented, by the way.
IBM has more than 40,000 patents. They could really earn the big bucks by extracting license fees from Linux users if the market share ever gets big enough. Maybe time to buy some shares?
Posted by: Scroogey | June 13, 2007 8:45 PM