[Patents] patent pools enforcing per-copy-licensing mode of software development

[Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr]

Dear Prof Endres

On Wed, Dec 27, 2000 at 03:56:42PM +0100, A +W Endres wrote:
> Hallo, Mr. Lang,
> 
>     I will only comment on your "heart of the problem" this year. I will 
> look
> again at this forun next year.
> 
> Bernard Lang schrieb:
> 
> > But the heart of the problem remains.  Why should society protect your
> > invention/discovery/creation/whatever ?  What does society get out of
> > it ?  To what length should it go to protect you, given its limited
> > resources, rather than do things for other people ?
> 
> I could describe it that way: Patenting was introduced in most countries as 
> a
> kind of public protection of "X". I go there, if I am afraid of  "Y" and pay
> for
> the protection. I could imagine other solutions, i.e privately offered ones,
> but
> I am not sure that you would like those any better. As an analogy, some
> people prefer to hire private guards rather than rely on public police
> protection.
> 
> Society got interested because people believed this would entice people to
> communicate that otherwise would be afraid to do so. It is believed that
> communication, i.e trade, would help the economy. A booming private
> economy produces more tax, etc. Of course, acamedia is no private
> economy and most people in academia are motivated different than people
> in industry. They learn to communicate, i.e publish, in order to survive.
> Most people in industry have no inherent motivation to publish, but lots
> of fear. I have been in industry and know this first hand.

So society gets a benefit... good, I agree

But there is also a cost: monopolies are generally considered
economically harmful, patents may be a disincentive to further
innovation etc...  (see economic literature).  Patents also have a cost
in litigation and legal risks. In the case of software, it gets in the
way of open-source, which is an original way of creating wealth. Etc.

Now the question is : where is the balance between benefits and costs.
How should protection be organized so that there is an educated
consensus that they balance each other.  Is it a 20 years patent
system, or something else ?  No one has seriously bothered analysing
the issue for software.  So I do not believe anyone who pretends to
have the answer.

Happy new year

Bernard

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