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451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open sourcePosted Feb 28, 2009 19:15 UTC (Sat) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167)In reply to: 451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source by dwon Parent article: 451 Group: Microsoft suing TomTom, not Linux, not open source
How do software patents encourage innovation again, in actual practice?
As far as I know most arguments rely on a proxy measurement. ie since it is difficult to measure "innovation" you have to pick something else, and if you pick the right something you can "prove" your case. In the most ridiculous cases they use the patents themselves as the proxy, meaning they're just begging the question. In other examples they basically make some argument about innovation being signalled by economic growth, and then they ignore the huge confounding factors and declare that a growing economy (or growing IT sector, or whatever) is proof that software patents are a good idea. Obviously that argument is a bit fragile right now, since the economy including IT sectors is in free fall.
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Measuring the contamination Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:45 UTC (Mon) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link] Indeed, counting the number of patents granted is really only measuring only one thing economically: the amount of money being spent at the patent office and the growth of the patent sector. And that's all that the lobbyists pushing for software patents care about: the health and wealth of the patent bureaucracy in each economic zone of interest.
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