Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patents Roundup: Software Patents Seen as Harmful to Innovation, Tuxera Discussion Continues

Bright idea with clipping path
Lit when software patents are annulled.



Summary: Miscellaneous news and views about software patents

SOME interesting new articles have appeared which can be used as 'ammunition' against the false argument that patents promote innovation. The first one is this:

Yet Another Study Shows That Patents Lead To Sub-Optimal Innovation



[...]

A few months back, two professors, Andrew W. Torrance and Bill Tomlinson, published a paper on a simulation game they ran to test out some of these hypotheses. A bunch of folks submitted this back when it first came out, but I wanted to spend some time looking over the details before writing about it. Basically, Torrance and Tomlinson create a nice simulation system that really does a good job simulating the various models for innovation with patents or in a more collaborative world. And, what they found in the simulation they ran supports what has actually happened in the real world, according to the research we've discussed in the past:
These results indicate that current patent systems (that is, systems combining patent and open source protection for inventions) may generate significantly lower rates of innovation (p<0.05), productivity (p<0.001), and social utility (p<0.002) than does a commons system. This suggests that current patent systems may significantly deter, rather than spur, technological innovation compared to a commons system.
Specifically, the results compared three separate models: one where everything gets patented, one where it's a hybrid model with both patents and a common, and one that was pure commons. The results are pretty striking. In the pure commons (no patents) world, they ended up with more innovation, significantly greater productivity and massively more social utility.


Timothy B. Lee, a longtime critic of the patent system, also wrote the following essay:

The Case against Literary (and Software) Patents



[...]

Imagine the outcry if the courts were to legalize patents on English prose. Suddenly, you could get a "literary patent" on novels employing a particular kind of plot twist, on news stories using a particular interview technique, or on legal briefs using a particular style of argumentation. Publishing books, papers, or articles would expose authors to potential liability for patent infringement. To protect themselves, writers would be forced to send their work to a patent lawyer before publication and to re-write passages found to be infringing a literary patent.

[...]

The patent at issue in Bilski is not a software patent; it is a "business method" patent that claims a strategy for hedging against financial risk. But the case is being closely watched for its effects on the software patent issue. Patented business methods are often implemented in software; for example, a key decision on the patentability of software, State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group, involved a software-implemented business method. And the standard articulated by the Federal Circuit in Bilski, known as the "machine-or-transformation test" has been used by the Patent Office in recent months to invalidate several software patents. The Supreme Court could ratify the Federal Circuit's mildly restrictive standard, or it could articulate its own standard that is either more or less restrictive of patents on software.

Reiterating that software cannot be patented would be a dramatic step, but it would be the right one. Supporters of software patents insist that barring software patents would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But it's not clear there was a baby in there to begin with. Empirical research suggests that software patents are dramatically less effective at promoting innovation than other categories of patents, producing more litigation and smaller revenues for innovators.


The Inquirer covered this too.

Most software companies infringe patents



[...]

In a report, Cato denizen Timothy Lee compared patents on software and business processes to patents on English prose.

[...]

Since patent protection was first extended to software in the 1980s, it is difficult or impossible to create any significant software without infringing one or more patents. With tens of thousands of new software patents granted every year, and no effective indexing method for software patents, there is no cost-effective way to determine which patents cover any piece of software.


Relating this to Free software and Linux, the latest major issue is to do with Tuxera [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. One person raises the point that "There are numerous open source file systems available, why do they persist with FAT? it's a horrid file system to begin with."

Another person argues that "It will be interesting to see how MS will be stabbing these guys in the back, as they are wont to do."

Rainer Weikusat writes:

It has the technical advantage of being really simple-minded and that's something many people from the embedded swamp will be happy about, because this means they have some chances of understanding it. At the base of FAT sits a so-called 'ressource-map allocator' which is one of the oldest and most primitive memory management schemes in existence, And who would want to throw all this DOS-code away for as long as there is still somebody willing to buy it again? . After all, products are sold by devising innovative marketing strategies, especially since 'the customer' isn't going to understand anything about them anyway, not the least be- cause technical information is usually shot down by pointing out that anything requiring more thought than 'the cavemen interface' ("point&grunt", term coined by E. Moglen) is just to complicated for the average cavemen (who still spends a sizable amount of his time with roasting raw meat on open fires and trying to make sexually useful contacts while doing so).


In response to this, claims another commenter:

Yes, it appears most technology marketers take Scott Adams' advice and aim their products at the "Stupid Poor" market segment, with a view to eventually following Microsoft's lead and breaking into the "Stupid Rich." What I don't understand is why they get so annoyed when people from the other two market segments try to buy/use their products. Does the 'smart money' have a different exchange rate?


In a more reasonable market, the chosen file system would be something like ext3, which nobody claims (or enforces) patent rights over.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Joking He'd Work on Code for "Sexual Favours"
For one thing, for software professionals (like for landlords), this is outright illegal and you'd get arrested for it, and moreover it's no joking matter because there are many real victims of such sexual exploitation
We Seem to Have Abandoned Science and Replaced Sound Policy With Private Patent Shareholders and College Dropouts Like Bill Epsteingate
Because of what they did there are now many people out there who reject all vaccines
Many IBM Layoffs, Centred Around Expert Labs US in Atlanta (Offer of "Relocation" Where No Such Option Exists)
So Techrights was assessing comments/gossip online and it was right about the Thursday cull
 
Links 23/05/2025: Microsoft Openwashing at ZDNet, Signal Does It Wrong (DRM, Back Doors Still Intact)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Clutter in Modern Interfaces and Dealing With DRM-Free Music
Links for the day
Links 23/05/2025: Tax Audits of Hong Kong's Independent as ‘Intimidation Tactics,’ Why "Regulating X Isn’t Censorship"
Links for the day
TecAdmin Took a Break From Linux to Push SPAM
This happened hours ago, and it seems to have been posted directly by the site's "Admin" (Rahul)
Links 23/05/2025: Violent Attacks on the Press, VMware Price Hikes, Vista 11 Considered Unsuitable for Any Confidentiality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Balkan Tourism, UK Polls, Reticulum and Meshtastic
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 22, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 22, 2025
Back to Basics, Folks, "AI" (Plagiarism) is Symptom of a Dying Industry Looking for Whatever Prey It Can Devour
lousy/sloppy imitations
Liam Proven's Thoughts on "AI" Being a Scam No Different From Religions, Alternative Medicine, and More
"Is there anywhere outside of retrocomputing that doesn't have AI in it?"
Slopwatch: Slopfarms That 'Hallucinate' (Yield Falsehoods) Cited as Credible Sources and Microsoft Media Gaslighting Everybody
Part of the problem is, Google News
More Media Coverage and Photos From Richard Stallman's Presentation in Liberec (Czech Republic)
Here are some photos
The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Spooking Women for at Least Two Decades
censorship was the ultimate goal
Links 22/05/2025: Openwashing, Dumping Microsoft's Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub), and New Climate Disasters
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Next Public Talk is in Milan, Italy Next Week
Happy hacking
Gemini Links 22/05/2025: Crimson Pro Font and CGI in Bash
Links for the day
IBM Goes to India, Fires People in the United States (Under the Guise of "Relocation" or Similar), Accusation of Bribery in the Company
LLM slop sites (some are pure slopfarms) from India say the IBM layoffs result in hiring "AI" (the "I" stands for India)
Why We'll Continue Covering EPO Abuses (Other Patent Offices as Well, as the Need Arises) for Many Years to Come
We're basically becoming Russia
Links 22/05/2025: TikTok Laying Off Again, Microsoft-Backed Builder.ai Set for Bankruptcy, Scam Altman Uses 'Funny Money' to 'Buy' (Hire) Company
Links for the day
These Feet Are Made for Walking
Humans are apparently so very clever that they decided to form a "progressive" consensus: feet no more
The Evolution of Microsoft's War on GNU/Linux
13 sins
OFTC Has Just Culled About a Third of Its Online Users
It's not the first time they purge or force offline many people/bots
My New Desk Arrangement (and More Breaks From the Keyboard)
all in all yesterday I devoted 4-5 hours to redoing and shuffling stuff
Central Staff Committee of the EPO Opposes Abuses Against EPO Staff, Challenging SuccessFactors Stunts
Europe became institutionally colonised
Gemini Links 22/05/2025: "Conspirituality" and Visiting One's Old University
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Bigots and Lunatics Who Attack Microsoft Critics, Projecting Their Own Bigotry by Accusing Others of Imaginary Things (Which They're Innocent Of)
"In psychology, projection refers to assigning your negative traits or unwanted emotions to others without being aware you’re doing it."
"The Appeals Committee [at the EPO] Unanimously Stated a Formal Flaw in the Consultation of the General Consultative Committee (GCC) on the Reform"
It's a truly horrifying situation
Microsoft Killed the Term "Open Source" (by Bribing/Taking Over OSI, 'Linux' Foundation Etc.) and Now It Needs to Kill the Brand Linux (Because Windows Just Won't Run!)
Why else would Microsoft falsely describe Windows as "Linux" and "Open Source"?
Slopwatch: Liars for Microsoft, Plagiarism, and IBM Red Hat Markets Slop as "AI"
Today was a bad day news-wise
Links 21/05/2025: Climate Problems and Ceasefires No Longer Foreseen
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/05/2025: "Shrimps of Doom" and "ASCII-graphs"
Links for the day
Links 21/05/2025: GitHub Becoming Slop, MElon as a Drug Addict Considered National Security Risk
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Slopfarms 'Think' Redis is "Linux" (RedisRaider)
Today we'll keep it short and to the point again
IBM Has Allegedly Just Sacked Mr. McKinsey (McK), Clay Cowan, Its Fourth CMO in a Few Years
To insiders he represented the company that's killing IBM or advising IBM on how to self-destruct
Gemini Links 21/05/2025: Trips, 4D Golf, and Writing Software
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 20, 2025