[Patents] Some remarks on Vol 1 #284

[Martin Wahlén mva@df.lth.se]

> But the same argument applies with equal force to almost all fields of
> invention. Following this argument to its logical conclusion would mean
> that patents (not just software patents) should only be owned by, and
> enforced against, large companies.  Apart from being a nightmare to
> implement in practice, this could easily prevent small companies from
> growing into larger companies.

No, it doesn't. In most other fields you dont give your invention away to
anyone who feels like grabbing a copy of it. In most other fields your
major cost is in massproduction. If you have money to massproduce
something (even at a small scale) you have money to make a patentsearch.
In software the duplication costs are very, very small. The research
periods and costs also tend to be small (exceptions exist) compared to
chemical industry and other traditional industries.  

Martin