Re: [Patents] EU Commission: Competitive and efficient European enterprises

[João Miguel Neves <joao@silvaneves.org>]

On Qua, 2003-04-09 at 17:08, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> > 3) Why do we want more software patents?  To pay lawyers?
> > 5) Why are we going to reduce user-end and incremental innovation?
> > 6) Why can't 2 persons have the same idea (the basis for patents)?
> 
> Interesting questions.  But they apply to all fields of technology, not
> just software.  Once again, such questions illustrate why software is
> just the next field of engineering to be subject to the patent system.
> Sure, the patent system has big problems with software patent quality,
> but it has similar quality problems with other areas of technology
> (again another reasons software is just another industry).
> 
> Try running a real business - having to hire people and be able to pay
> for them with income from sales.  If you actually have something worth
> a lot of money, I suspect you will be running to the patent system,.
> 
Been there, patents are too much of an investment to be even made on the
first few months/years if you're a small company. On the other hand,
companies like Microsoft are getting thousands of patents every year
(and this is only in europe). Unfortunately they'll use them to get
control of your work.

It's a pretty bleak picture for SMEs and that's why companies like opera
and others are also against software patents.

-- 
                                                João Miguel Neves

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