Old Articles Explaining That Patents - Especially Software Patents - Are Bad for Innovation
posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 06, 2026
With 4 days til the annual party we're left to assume that this coming week will be a little different though we plan to carry on with the European Patent Office (EPO) series on Monday when there's another big strike at the EPO.
"It's very important to not let the crooked EPO management conflate or confuse innovation with patents," an associate keeps telling us. "Time to dig out all the studies which show how much patents (especially software patents) impede innovation." This ought to be done "repeatedly," he argues, "for emphasis". Here are some relevant citations. It'll be easier to link to them all in one place (this page as an anchoring point).
So here we go, based on our past coverage (some is 19 years old; it's hardly a new topic for us):
| 2007-09-06 |
More Proof That the Patent System Shot Down Innovation and Shot Self in Foot |
| 2007-10-01 |
Why Software Patents are Wrong (Video) |
| 2007-10-23 |
A Victory in Europe for Microsoft's Absurd Patents and So-called 'Innovation' |
| 2008-02-04 |
Patents != Innovation |
| 2008-02-18 |
More Patents = More Innovation? (Video) |
| 2008-07-09 |
Improving 'Innovation', One Embargo at a Time... |
| 2008-09-08 |
At Microsoft, Cloning-Then-Patenting is “Innovation” |
| 2008-11-12 |
Patents Roundup: Microsoft, Free Software Innovations and Impending Changes to Patent Law |
| 2009-07-11 |
It's Official: Patents Stifle Innovation |
| 2009-08-10 |
Mozilla's Chris Beard Versus Software Patents (Video) |
| 2009-09-02 |
Patents Roundup: Software Patents Seen as Harmful to Innovation, Tuxera Discussion Continues |
| 2009-09-04 |
Rob Tiller Explains Why Software Patents Are a Tax on Innovation (Video) |
| 2009-09-29 |
Patents Roundup: Patents Harm Innovation (Again), Government Intervenes in Bilski Case and Still Hides ACTA |
| 2009-11-15 |
Patents Roundup: Patents as Deterrent Against Innovation, Apple's Role, and Bilski's Toll |
| 2010-06-10 |
New Doctoral Thesis Explores the Effects of Software Patent Policy on the Motivation and Innovation of Free/Libre and Open Source Developers |
| 2010-08-16 |
“Microsoft is Cashing Innovation Tax (aka Patent License Money) for Android, Now Oracle Joins the Scheme.” |
| 2011-01-18 |
“Micro-Patents” a Euphemism for Destructors of Innovation |
| 2011-02-10 |
USPTO Has Patents Blocking American Innovation, Brainwashed European Minority Wants to Emulate This Mess |
| 2011-05-31 |
Why Europe Must Prepare to Abolish and Block All Software Patents |
| 2011-06-24 |
The Word “Innovation” is Being Hijacked to Mean Patents and Other Monopolies |
| 2012-02-06 |
Monopoly as Innovation? |
| 2012-06-20 |
DPL Wants to Contain/Lock Innovation, EFF Seeks to Defend Innovation by Fighting Software Patents |
| 2012-10-06 |
Scholars Michele Boldrin, Juan Correa Allamand, David K. Levine, and Carmine Ornaghi Suggest Abolishing All Patents |
| 2012-11-22 |
Culture of Litigation Versus Business, Innovation, and Production |
| 2013-05-18 |
Eugene Kaspersky Says Patents Harm Innovation |
| 2013-07-11 |
Rethinking the Impact of Patents on Innovation |
| 2014-10-08 |
Lawyers' Propaganda About Software Patents and a New AstroTurf Entity Called Innovation Alliance |
| 2015-12-16 |
New WIPO Figures Reinforce Reality Where More Patents Needn't Imply More Innovation, Just Lower Standards |
| 2016-04-22 |
More Patents Don't Mean More Innovation, Just More Money for Patent Lawyers and Patent Offices |
| 2016-08-09 |
The Problem With Overpatenting: The Google Example |
| 2017-04-01 |
Small Business Innovation Protection Act (SBIPA) Regarding the US Small Business Administration (SBA) Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem |
| 2017-10-04 |
Our Position on Patent Scope and Patent Breadth |
| 2017-12-31 |
Michael Frakes and Melissa Wasserman Complain About Low Patent Quality While Watchtroll Lobbies to Lower It Further |
| 2018-01-28 |
Counting Patents is Not Measuring Innovation and Checking Patents is Often Assessing Vapourware |
| 2018-07-19 |
When Amplifying the Message of 'Global Innovation Index 2018' IP Watch Sounds Like WIPO and IP Watchdog (Watchtroll) |
| 2018-08-09 |
Patents as Profiteering Opportunities for Law Firms Rather Than Drivers of Innovation for Productive Companies |
| 2018-08-14 |
Patent Lawyers Writing Patent Law for Their Own Enrichment Rather Than for Innovation |
| 2018-09-22 |
Bogus Patents Which Oughtn't Have Been Granted Make Products Deliberately Worse, Reducing Innovation and Worsening Customers' Experience |
| 2018-10-21 |
A Warning About MPEG-G, the Latest Software Patents Trap That Threatens Innovation Everywhere |
| 2019-06-03 |
An Office of Patent Extremists |
| 2019-12-06 |
The EPO Rejects Innovation |
That should suffice for now. We've omitted more than 50% of the articles we had gathered as candidates for inclusion. █
