[Patents] Patnews on Pierret

[dmarti@zgp.org (Don Marti)]

begin Gregory Aharonian quotation of Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 11:57:01AM -0400:

> The goal then is to fix the entire patent prosecution system, to improve
> quality, to put patent busters like me out of work - and not to create
> all sorts of special rules for each industry.

Saying that software is an industry is like saying that poetry is
an industry.  Yes, there are companies that make their profits
selling poetry books through ordinary retail channels, but most
poetry is written outside that system -- from one person to another,
or for a small organization such as a church or school.  (Similarly,
80 to 90 percent of _commercial_ software is developed in-house;
this doesn't count research, education, and government.)

Imagine applying the patent system to the structures of poems,
rhymes as used in poems, and subjects of poems.  There might be
some reward for innovators in the poetry industry, but this economic
good would be more than outweighed by the costs imposed on poets
who don't work within that one business model.  The final result is
less useful poetry for everyone.

Greg, you don't seem to be willing to draw the line on what is
patentable and what is not.  Do you even agree that there should
be a line?  If there is a line, software has more in common with
the activities on the "no patents" side of the line.

-- 
Don Marti              "I've never sent or received a GIF in my life."
http://zgp.org/~dmarti    -- Bruce Schneier, Secrets and Lies, p. 246.
dmarti@zgp.org    Free the Web, burn all GIFs: http://burnallgifs.org/