Ars Technica reports that software patents might be making a comeback.
A landmark 2014 ruling by the Supreme Court called into question the validity of many software patents. In the wake of that ruling, countless broad software patents became invalid, dealing a blow to litigation-happy patent trolls nationwide.
But this week the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proposed new rules that would make it easier to patent software. If those rules take effect, it could take us back to the bad old days when it was easy to get broad software patents—and to sue companies that accidentally infringe them.
What could possibly go wrong?
Say goodbye to reasonably performing programs forever.
What could possibly go wrong?
Nothing if you are a lawyer otherwise, the USA risks becoming a Tecnology dead zone. No one will develop anything as in write a line of code… for fear of being sued because someone else has coded something like
c:= 1;
The cost of proving that your version of the line does not violate someone elses use of the line will make pretty well any software developed in the USA open to an endless stream of lawsuits.
I know I’m being simplistic but the USPTO lost the plot yeats ago and willingly grants patents for totally obvious things. Their track record is so bad… (just look at all the patents invalidated every year) that I just don’t think that will be able or even willing to stop granting patents that are totally obvious. Getting a patent invaidated costs a lot of money but the USPTO don’t care as they have already banked the money from the submission.
It is about time that someone sued the USPTO for negligence in granting patents for totally obvious things.
It would be awesome if someone did that and succeed in recovering all the value of a huge lawsuit plus some more as fine for negligence with a specific provision that the servant that granted must foot the bill; if he/she can not cover it integrally, USPTO must supply the difference . It is guaranteed that all the stupid requests would be blocked 99,99% of the time.
It may be possible for a class action lawsuit to be created, if enough companies got together to sue the USPTO. After all, businesses are apparently the same thing as people…legally.
One legal issue with that is that they’ll have to justify the monetary amount they are claiming damages for, which means needing to disclose how much money they lost. That would not be possible if the settlement is out-of-court under NDA. Patent trolls love using that technique because they can claim damages that are large, but not large enough for a company to want to waste money defending, and it doesn’t set a precedent in the courts.
demetrioussharpe,
I don’t have much faith that patent reform will succeed now any more than it has in the past. While the consensus has long been that software patents don’t increase innovation, the truth is that corporations have embraced them for completely different motivations: patents are extremely effective legal weapons for reducing competition, which is why they have business value. Increasing barriers to entry is a goal more than a side effect; courts/legislators are more than happy to serve big business interests. While different rulings have moved the bar to and fro depending on the court in question, on the whole the incumbents pushing for software patents are still as powerful as ever.