Hacking through the Software Patent Thickets (The H)

The H looks at patent thickets and why they are a problem for free software. "Probably the vast majority of patents are granted for very specific aspects of a given field. On their own, they do nothing; to be useful, they must be employed alongside many other patented ideas. But that is only possible if all of the relevant patent-holders agree: if even one element is missing, the machine or process might fail. As technology becomes more complex, it becomes dependent on an increasing number of patent-holders, all of which must license their inventions for the system to function."

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