On: When Patents Attack

[Terry_B]

Can you name an example of a good software patent?

[meow → Terry_B]

Mpeg,h264 series of patents. I'm not sure any one would invest the same effort in these particular domains if they knew every one can copy them (though current crop of internet companies like google have an incentive to do it).

[MartinCron → Terry_B]

As long as it meets the non-obvious and no-prior-art tests, I don't see a problem with the concept.

Something like mouse gestures feel like a patentable innovation worthy of a temporary government-enforced monopoly.

[Kliment → MartinCron]

Sure, but not for a decade or more. The timescale of patents is simply incompatible with the timescale of software.

[MartinCron → Kliment]

I totally agree on that front. Five years seems like a reasonable upper limit to how long software patents should last.

[recoiledsnake → Terry_B]

http://math.uic.edu/~jlong/MCS425Fall10/RSA-patent.pdf