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

[Ram'on Garc'ia Fern'andez ramon@jl1.quim.ucm.es]

On Wed, Dec 27, 2000 at 07:19:11AM +0100, A +W Endres wrote:
> Of course, a patent only gives a limited monopoly for making money
> from an invention. I do not want to change that. The patent system
> is intended to motivate the inventor to share his knowledge with society.

I have some questions about your position.

Do you believe that a patent should be granted in exchange for any
idea (method), or only when there is a costly research behind?

What is your opinion about trivial/easy patents? What measures would
you suggest against them?

Often patented inventions are accidentaly reinvented and infringed.
In those cases, patents are not helping the society at all: we
would learn the invention anyway, perhaps some months later.
What do you think about that?

According to Pilch you said:

> True software engineering, he says, needs patents, and the hobbyists
> should be sacrificed for that.

Software patents began to be used in the US after 1982. (Before that date,
they where occasional and very rarely enforced). The most important
development of the software industry where before 1982. Facts apparently
contradict your statement "True software engineering needs patents".

Ramon