Software Patent Reform Happening Now 130
Jim Hall writes "Many of us in IT recognize that software patents are a bad idea — you can patent just about anything if you put "on a computer" at the end of it. But now we can finally do something about it. Congress is considering the America Invents Act — your Representatives are very interested in hearing from you. Also, the USPTO is inviting public comments to change the system (you need to file by June 29, 2011.) I've written a blog post about software patents with more, starting with a primer of copyright and patents."
Re:Riiiight (Score:3, Interesting)
The sad fact is that extending copyrights basically hurts nobody with money. Ensuring Micky Mouse is perpetually in copyright only harms the public domain and the insults the various founding principles of America.
Patents on the other hand, do harm people with money, and worse, patent trolls ensure that everyone is at huge risk. Thus change will happen.
It is depressing that, as a highly trained engineer, my patents have less monetary value to society than the latest Justin Bieber garbage. If society had to pay the same toll to 'patent artists' as it has to pay to 'creative artists' then you'd have to stick a nickle in your computer every minute just to keep using it.
IMHO - the best thing would be to say lifetime of patents == lifetime of copyrights - battle royal begin! At least there would a well financed opposing view point to the idea that copyright should be forever.
Re:Can't be worse (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm afraid it's not so simple. There are now many companies that have massively invested in patents, either to sue other companies or protect themselves against other patent lawsuits. They certainly don't want to see all this investment lost, although it would be net benefit for everybody involved, including them. Getting your congressmen to view this point of view instead of the lobbyists that will try the best to protect the patents of the companies they work for is the hardest part.
When I spoke with my Senator's office, and (later) with my Representative's office, they both talked about business and how business doesn't want software patent reform. They get this impression by talking to lobbyists, who are presenting one side of the store. But point out that this is costing businesses a lot of money in patent defense, [toptechnews.com] and that some companies have come out asking for software patent reform, and the politicians do listen. When even a company like Google has to announce they are buying a patent portfolio just to use it in defense ...
Re:Rrrrriiiight.... (Score:5, Interesting)
No... no they're not. They are interested in how much money they can get from their campaign "donors" to vote one way or the other.
I call BS on that one. Have you actually talked to your Congressperson? They do want to hear from you.
Maybe I'm lucky. I live in Minnesota, so I have Senator Al Franken: privacy [slashdot.org], net neutrality [slashdot.org]. I actually met him a few times, which is what got me interested in doing something about software patent reform. Al made a great comment to me: "It's your job (constituent) to tell me what's important, and my job (Senator) to go do something about that in Washington - but first you need to let me know what's important."
And true to form, when I contacted his office, they listened to me. At my first contact, I spoke with the office's state director. Then I got to meet the constituent affairs person. That led to a conversation with the office's lead counsel on patent issues, and who works with Al on the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. [senate.gov] Everyone was very helpful, and very engaged with what I had to say. His office is the one that pointed out the USPTO RFC to me - I had missed it. (USPTO web site is hard to navigate.)
Don't be defeatist with your "They are interested in how much money they can get from donors" attitude, and do something about it. On Slashdot, we've been bitching about software patent reform for years (and I have a low UID). Finally, now we have a window of opportunity. Don't lose it!
Re:Invest some time and money in fixing this. (Score:4, Interesting)
This isn't true all the time but it's true enough that voters feel disenchanted with voting.