Patents on algorithms are bad and ugly

Summary: Debunking the myth of 'good' software patents -- one that several fake opposers of software patents put forth

There is a good article about software patents over at Groklaw. PolR, who writes a lot about this topic, says the following:

How Many Patents Must Be Read to Clear All Patents Rights on Software?

There is a popular theory about the ills of the patent system that there is nothing wrong with software patents. According to this theory, all the problems are due either to bad actors called trolls or to poor quality patents. Then, as the logic goes, the patent system may be fixed by curtailing the activities of bad actors and by improving the quality of the patents.

The main point made there is that to see where low-quality patents actually are we just need to look at all software patents. To make this point in a timely fashion, Slashdot has the post "Google Patents Displaying Athletes On Sports Fields" and Against Monopoly says:

Bad patents are an old story, but they keep getting worse. This one is granted for "displaying pictures of athletes on the fields on which their sport is played" link here.

This is generally a point we made many times before. Software patents are bad patents, there is no such thing as a 'good' software patent. Read the post from PolR for more details. Another popular myth debunked therein is the myth that only patent trolls are the problem, On dozens of occasions we wrote about this annoying myth which currently guides the policies at the White House [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. ⬆