From srctran@world.std.com  Mon Apr  2 17:40:06 2001
From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 12:40:06 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [Patents] WHAT WE LOST DUE TO GREG
Message-ID: <200104021640.MAA05220@world.std.com>

Hartmut write:
>This domination must be justified for every field, and the balance tilts
>very badly in disfavor of the patent system in the case of software. I
>am not saying that it is very good elsewhere.

An interesting economic question Hartmut raises.  All areas of patenting
have problems (I agree) that need to be justified (I agree it is useful
to reexamine the merits of patenting).  The question is, are the
economic disruptions of software patents, when balanced, very badly
in disfavor of software patents.

I.E., as a percentage of industry incomes, are software patents leading
to altered allocations much greater than in other industries?  And/or
are software patents leading to altered corporate activities much
greater than in other industries?  And/or are software patents leading
to altered corporate R&D investments much greater than in other
industries?

Show me statistically reliable data confirming these three domination
economic domiantion effects, and you will have a case for treating
software patenting differently.  And to date, there is no such data
(and Bessen's models didn't consider cross-industry comparisons).

So if you are serious about this issue, why not start lobbying the
EC to fund a study to measure the effects of patents in a variety 
of industries to see if indeed software patents are being orders
more disruptive?

Greg Aharonian


