Solutions to the software patent problem? [LWN.net]

Solutions to the software patent problem?

Posted Dec 24, 2003 5:53 UTC (Wed) by jvotaw (subscriber, #3678)
Parent article: Use of patented code in the kernel

Software patents seem to threaten all but serious commercial software companies. Free software, as well as small companies that can't afford to develop a defensive patent portfolio, are at risk of being extorted by large software companise. Larger companies can bring lawsuits that, regardless of their validity, are too expensive for little guys to defend against.

What are solutions to this? I can think of two (imperfect) ones:

1. Reform the patent system. A better way to discover prior art is a step in the right direction, and the US PTO seems to be taking some steps in this direction. Placing serious restrictions on software patents, or banning them outright, would be even better. The flaw with this approach is it will take a lot of work, luck and money for lobbyists.

2. Develop a common defensive patent portfolio. Might it make sense for OSDL or a similar body to do this? What about protecting small but non-OSS companies? It would be sad to see e.g. a shareware author extorted, even if their product is not open sourced. The flaw I see with this is the effort/coordination and lawyer fees to make it work.

Other ideas? I believe this community is smart enough to find a solution to this problem.

Joel

(Log in to post comments)