[Patents] Patents required for investment?

[epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk (Edward Avis)]

On Tue, 8 May 2001, Gregory Aharonian wrote:

>>The patent system is not about giving venture capitalists or IP lawyers
>>what they 'demand'.  It is about striking a balance between limited
>>monopoly and open competition, in the public interest.
>
>Yet one more patenting aspect that software technology shares with all
>other areas of technology.  You guys are starting to come up with some
>pretty good reasons why the patentability of software should be no
>different than anything else, since they all share so many of the same
>problems and concerns.

The same criteria should be used to assess patenting immaterial goods
(algorithms and mathematics) as are used to decide whether the patent
system is a good idea for material goods.

However, you can apply the same test to two different situations and
come up with two different conclusions.  Although for physical objects
the patent system seems, on balance, to be beneficial, applying the same
analysis to software shows that it is a bad idea there.

-- 
Ed Avis
epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk