[Patents] Re. Prior Use

[Gregory Aharonian srctran@world.std.com]

>The more software patents there are, the more expensive good
>software becomes.

There is no economic data supporting that much, if any, of the
rise of software prices can be attributable to software patents.
If anything, the price of software has been steadily decreasing,
except for programs with more of a monopolistic nature where the
developer can charge what the market will bear.

Second, a bunch of postings have expressed the concerns of
individuals using software that infringes a patent.  For the most
part, software patent holders never go after individuals for
patent infringement because it is economic nonsense to do so.
I am probably one of the few individuals ever to be so sued.
So software consumers have nothing to worry about when it comes
to being sued for patent infringement, software or hardware.

Large software companies (for example those using GIF) do have
to worry about being sued or paying licenses, but handle the
costs as an ordinary expense for doing business, and if the
cost is greater than what it takes to kill the patent in courts,
they attack back.

The key concern, especially for my activities over the years,
have been the small companies and startups in the middle, who
don't yet have the big bucks to fully play these patent games
(and which pretty much describes most of the software companies
in Europe, like the one Hartmut works for).

How best to help them out?  If you could get the patent offices
to get rid of the crappy patents they issue, then such smaller
entities have less to worry about, and probably won't be
approach until they start making lots of money, and therefore
are in a position to play the game.

And whatever horror stories you might have for software patents,
I can find many more for non-software patents, especially with
biotech and digital circuits.

Finally, if the German government is so damned worried about the
negative economic effects of software patents, why did it just
give some expensive prize to the German guy who has the MP#
MP3 patents?

Greg Aharonian