Phipps: Stop patent mischief by curbing patent enforcement

At InfoWorld, Simon Phipps responded to Richard Stallman's WIRED essay on limiting the effects of software patents, via a counterproposal that he says will "adjust the system so that these patents cannot be used to harm the software industry, which to date hasn't needed patents to drive innovation." Phipps' proposal is to "make software patents only enforceable against implementations of standards where the patent was declared in the standards process. All other software contexts should become off-limits for patent enforcement." Nevertheless, he said, there will still need to be other measures to completely fix the software patent mess. (Thanks to Davide Del Vento)

Comments (51 posted)