[Patents] Economic assessment

[Luuk van Dijk Luuk.van.Dijk@xs4all.nl]

Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> 
> Ed writes:

[SNIP]

> >economically useful ones, but I'm sure everyone on this list will
> >agree that such swpats as are worthwhile are heavily outweighed by
> >the mass of bad patents.
> 
> Which may or may not be true for not only software patents, but all
> other areas of technology.  Talk to biotechnology researchers - they
> have even bigger complaints than software developers over the large
> number of questionable biotech patents that require researchers to get
> licenses to do their research, a far more onerous and freedom-restricting
> problem than anything software developers are complaining about.
> 
> I would guess in most field, the bad patents far outweigh the good patents,
> and one can question whether society as a whole gains a net benefit.
> 
> Which makes this line of attack on software patents solely, unjust.  If

[SNIP]

Extremely valid point! except that the current efforts are directed
at the intended change of artcl. 52.2.c of the Muenich Treaty, and
as such sw.pats had some priority.  It is not unjust to fight one
battle a time. You can't blame the members of amnesty international 
for not also doing something to save the whales, to draw up
a random analogy here.

I also find it hard to talk on behalf of biologists and anyone not
a trained physicist and/or software engineer. But that is just modesty,
and can be dropped ;-)

> Give it some thought.

How would we get in contact with these other communities, anyone?

Luuk van Dijk

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