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- Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
- Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!arrayb!wicklund
- From: wicklund@intellistor.com (Tom Wicklund)
- Subject: Re: 200 software patents in two months - what's going on?
- Message-ID: <1992Jul30.220132.2987@intellistor.com>
- Organization: Intellistor, Inc.
- References: <BrvIqF.9M5@world.std.com> <EMERY.92Jul24092740@Dr_No.mitre.org>
- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 22:01:32 GMT
- Lines: 48
-
- In <EMERY.92Jul24092740@Dr_No.mitre.org> emery@Dr_No.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:
-
- >The main problem with this scenario is that eventually, the few will
- >crowd out the many, as the little guys won't have portfolios of
- >patents to use in trade. To my way of thinking, this is the greatest
- >danger of the entire software patent issue: that it has a substantial
- >potential to create monopolies or obligarchies (is that the right term
- >for group monopolies?)
-
- Can one give an example when this has happened in the past? If it's
- such a great danger there should be an example of a small number of
- large comanies monopolizing an industry by controlling all the
- patents.
-
- The one case I know of was RCA's superheterodyne patent. It so
- revolutionized radio that people spoke of having an "RCA" rather than
- a radio. I've been told this is the one case where a patent was
- canceled to eliminate a monopoly.
-
- Looking at the electronics and computer industries, there are
- many thousands of patents covering computer design, chip
- manufacturing, etc. Most of these patents are owned by large
- companies. Yet the industry isn't dominated by a small number of
- large companies. All the chip patents now in force don't stop new
- startups from entering the market. There are a lot of lawsuits, some
- from patents, some against ex-employees, and there are examples of
- companies that have gone out of business due to lawsuits, but this is
- the exception not the rule.
-
- I fail to see how software patents will shut down the software
- industry. There have been and will be well publicized cases where a
- patent gets in somebody's way, as has been the case with patents in
- the past. Certainly it will cost money to contest some patents,
-
- I know of no historical precedent to suggest that software
- patents will create a monopoly or oligarchy. In fact, the only times
- monopolies or oligarchies develop and last for any length of time
- (more than a few years) is if they have government enforcing their
- status by prohibiting competitors.
-
- One of the main problems with software patents is that software is
- much easier to produce than physical machines. Thus many, many more
- people are running into patent restrictions and much more feeling that
- independently inventing something should not be prohibited.
-
- I'm not trying to argue for or against software patents here. But the
- scare tactics of software dominated by a few large companies have no
- basis in fact.
-