Bonum Certa Men Certa

Software Patents Elimination a Top Priority in the United States

Online petitions down at the moment

White House site



Summary: With well over 12 thousand signatures, the petition to eliminate software patents is now a top 10 plea

ON a couple of occasions so far we have promoted the petition against software patents in the United States. This site's current top goal is to remove software patents; the rest of the goals will follow and be fulfilled as a result, including the assured triumph of software freedom in more and more areas (of operation) and economies, including the US where GNU/Linux adoption is relatively low.



Software patents have been an artificial elevator of software monopolies, so it is not surprising that firms like Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft use these for leverage, expelling/blocking/suing new entrants and creating deterrence to those who dare enter. More and more people seem to have caught up and realised how this plot goes. According to this report, "Anti-software-patent petition makes White House's top 10".

Good, but this part of the site is down at the moment (see screenshot above).

Also playing an important role in the push for reform are some of Bessen's studies [1, 2, 3] , which crop up in all sorts of places and provide ammunition against today's patent system. In separate recent studies, Bessen showed the drawbacks of patent trolls (NPEs) and software patents. Here is a new article about the recent 'reform' which did not actually reform anything that needed reforming:

Most Silicon Valley companies were opposed to the patent reform law that President Obama signed last week. Some argue that the America Invents Act favors large megacorps over smaller companies, and could dampen innovation in the tech sector.

[...]

Patent Trolls. The new law does almost nothing to fight the "patent troll" problem, according to the attorneys we talked to. The good news is, companies are no longer able to patent incremental improvements in technology or processes as easily as they used to, thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in KSR International Vs. Teleflex, which basically put the kibosh on patents that are too "obvious." (Also, Conley says that people used to think "business method patents" would "end Western Civilization as we know it," but "courts usually refuse to enforce them on the grounds of obviousness."


Temporary maintenance issues aside, the petition to President Obama is still open and those looking for an opportunity to give people a voice are also being informed by The Hill, which gets read by a lot of US citizens. It says that this petition exists, which is good enough a start. We need to eliminate software patents in the US before they go global.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025
Links 30/03/2025: Security Breaches, Crackdowns on Dissent/Rival Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: London Soundtrack Festival, Superbloom, gmiCAPTCHA
Links for the day
Phasing Out Vista 10 in Nations Where ~90% of Windows Users Still Rely on It
Recipe for another Microsoft disaster
The Cost of Pursuing the Much-Needed Reform/Shield Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025
Judges Would Never Rule for Men Who Strangle Women or Against Women Who Merely Wrote Articles About Abuse They Had Received From Men
We don't intend to do "trial by media", so we won't be disclosing claims and defences until it's over
Windows is an Unnatural Disaster, It is Also Avoidable
there's a wide window of opportunity opening
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Less YouTube and More Station
Links for the day
In Some Countries, Such as Thailand, Firefox is Already Measured at Less Than 2% (One Day Firefox Will Get Blocked, Not Only Lack Support)
Web consolidation around Chrom-isms will doom the Web as we know it
Killing the News With Spam and Slop Benefits Those Whose Desire is an Uninformed Population
adoption of Free software depends indirectly on political activities/activism
Links 29/03/2025: Trademarks Battles, Fires Destroy More Than 3,000 South Korean Homes
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: An Introduction
Perhaps tomorrow or perhaps next week we'll share more information about what happened and what was reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency
Links 29/03/2025: More Crackdowns on Science, "Hey Hi" Slopping is Flopping
Links for the day
IBM's BS (Bait, Switch) Regarding Ways to Stay Onboard
PIPs, RTOs, and forced relocations are just an illusion of choice (or ability to recover)
Costa Rica Almost Bankrupt Because of Microsoft
the incidents in Costa Rica are Windows incidents
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Art of Looking, Wireguard, EMacs
Links for the day
Links 29/03/2025: Attacks on Social Security and War Updates
Links for the day
Banned evidence: Ars Technica forums censored email predicting DebConf23 death, Abraham Raji & Debian cover-up
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 28, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 28, 2025