glen-martin
Patenting global web-commerce?
posted Wednesday, 3 November 2004
I can understand a temptation to sue Dell (even a small possibility of winning or settling yields a better return than the lottery or playing the tables), but a patent on web-based international e-commerce?
I've ranted and railed about software patents - I guess I need to expand that to business method patents.
Society grants patents to companies to publish their ideas so others can leverage those ideas within still greater innovations. But if the idea is obvious, others will think of it without such publishing, and there is no value returned to society in exchange for the grant of exclusivity through a patent.
Hence such glorious patents as the XOR cursor, the ability to connect a modem to a cell-phone, and now the possibility of letting international customers use your web-commerce site, these are ***STUPID*** patents. We the people have got a bum deal from our government authorities who grant such travesties, because these patents do nothing except increase the cost of doing business. There is no social benefit.
I've ranted and railed about software patents - I guess I need to expand that to business method patents.
Society grants patents to companies to publish their ideas so others can leverage those ideas within still greater innovations. But if the idea is obvious, others will think of it without such publishing, and there is no value returned to society in exchange for the grant of exclusivity through a patent.
Hence such glorious patents as the XOR cursor, the ability to connect a modem to a cell-phone, and now the possibility of letting international customers use your web-commerce site, these are ***STUPID*** patents. We the people have got a bum deal from our government authorities who grant such travesties, because these patents do nothing except increase the cost of doing business. There is no social benefit.
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