[pp.int.general] philosophy vs. action

[Reinier Bakels]

> * Doesn't someone who contributes a brilliant trick for building software 
> have the "human" right of a software patent? It is his (her) labour and 
> creativity, anyhow ...
>
> I'm an engineer by education. I hold (co-hold) a physical patent, on a 
> design of safety horse stirrups for disabled people.
> With your industrial patent, you patented a device. That's fine.
> With software patents, they want to patent ideas! Since algorithms are 
> unpatentable (maths are unpatentable), they just started patenting 
> whatever idea they had: double click, hiperlinks, networking, backups, 
> etc.
>
> In industrial patents, you have previous art. You have to show a "working 
> prototype", so nobody can patent a "perpetual motion machine". In software 
> patents... well, they have patented worse things.
>
My statement was actually that the perception of some people that inventors 
naturally deserve patents is not plain nonsense. It is a trade-off. Only a 
full appreciation of the (many) disadvantages of patents leads to the 
conclusion that most of them are detrimental.

Havin said that, I disagree with the perception that software patents are 
essentially different. Firstly, the different nature is a fallacy. All 
patents arer to some extent "abstract". Secondly, similar problems usually 
attributed to software patents are found in other fields as well. Even 
opponents of patentsusually say that patents to have a purpose in specific 
fields, such as pharma.

But this is a clear case of "the neighbours grass is always greener" 
syndrom. The pharmaceutical industry is in a crisis. Prices are outrages, 
not affordable by developing countries, and often not even affordable by 
developed countries. That leads to cynical calculations about the price of a 
life year. Is a $ 200000 cancer medicine justified if it extends life by one 
year? At the same time, the actual innovation rate is disappointingly low. 
Allegedly pharma manufacturers need the patents to finance promotional 
campaigns (inviding doctors for congesses on the Bahama's) while the actual 
research is performed in academic hospitals with taxpayer money.

reinier