Thoughts on Software Patents

This article, that ran in the Times yesterday, expresses the author's disdain for the practice of patenting software. While I think its hard to argue against the fact that patents are necessary for innovation in certain fields, software patents do more harm than good.

Take, for example, the pharmaceutical industry. Years of research goes into the development of a certain drug, and then that chemical as a whole is patented. The company has the right to be the sole producer of that chemical for the lifetime of the patent. This allows them to make up all the research and development costs that went into producing that drug, as well the many other drugs that failed at some point in the development / testing phases. This makes sense, as the patent system fosters innovation by giving the companies that do expensive R&D the right to make money off of their drugs.

Software patents are a whole different ballgame. These aren't holistic patents like those of the pharmaceutical industry. They are patents on one of the many small ideas that as a whole make up a software program. Patents on these ideas hinder innovation in software development, as future developers need to avoid using ANY of the many patented ideas in their programs. Essentially, patenting these small ideas can create a gridlock, where further innovation isn't possible for any party without infringing on somebody else's patent. Along this same line, software patents often cover ideas that are obvious to other developers.

Software is already protected by copyright law, which protects authors from having their code copied without a licence. The addition of patents into the mix complicates things legally and does very little (if anything) to foster additional innovation. In fact, the biggest fans of software patents are probably the patent lawyers who make a living defending them.

Patenting software wasn't an option 30 years ago, but over time patent law has slowly evolved to the point where software patents are now commonplace. I think everyone would be better off if that were not the case.

Note: I'm no expert on any of this stuff, so if anybody disagrees with anything I've written please let me know in the comments.