European rejection of software patents is a victory for open source

European rejection of software patents is a victory for open source

The theory is that if development costs are huge, but copying an invention is cheap, then patents really protect the innovator's investment and thus are an incentive.

I would say that in software that point is moot, because if the development was expensive, but copying (not in a bit-for-bit digital copying sense, but copying as recreation) is easy, then the inventor is incompetent. Consider sudo, progress bar, one-click, etc.

In biochemistry/medicine the situation is somewhat different, because selling even a simple molecule as a remedy for something includes expensive large scale field studies. However, I have heard about trivial patents and trivial patent based extortion in that field too.