Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

Yes, fix the patent system

Posted May 3, 2011 19:44 UTC (Tue) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458)
In reply to: Yes, fix the patent system by butlerm
Parent article: A victory for the trolls

Sorry, but abolishing patents isn't realistic at all. First of all, it would have to be world-wide to be of any use (good luck with that!). And then it would mean that suddenly IBM, say, would be worth a bunch of billions of dollars less. The result could make the dotcom crash look tame...

(Log in to post comments)

Posted May 5, 2011 18:47 UTC (Thu) by chad.netzer (✭ supporter ✭, #4257) [Link]

Presumably "abolish" would (hypothetically) be a "phase out". Existing patents would expire at the same time (unless invalidated), but new ones would have new terms.

I tend to agree that software patents won't ever be a abolished; I'd be content to see them reduced to a term of 5-7 years. In this field, it's insane to give someone a monopoly on *anything* for two decades.