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Mr. Lott has been involved in over 70 software development projects in a career that spans 30 years. He has worked in the capacity of internet strategist, software architect, project leader, DBA, programmer. Since 1993 he has been focused on data warehousing and the associated e-business architectures that make the right data available to the right people to support their business decision-making. Steven is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 97 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website. View Full User Profile

Software Patents

11.25.2010
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Here's an interesting news item: "Red Hat’s Secret Patent Deal and the Fate of JBoss Developers".

Here's an ancient -- but still relevant -- piece from Tim O'Reilly: "Software and Business Method Patents".


Here's a great article in Slate on the consequences of software patents. "Weapons of Business Destruction: How a tiny little 'patent troll' got BlackBerry in a headlock".

The biggest issue with software patents is always the "non-obvious" issue. Generally, this can be debated, so a prior art review is far more valuable.

See "Peer Review Starts for Software Patent Applications: IEEE Spectrum talks to the founder to Peer-to-Patent Beth Noveck". This is where the rubber hits the road.

To participate, see Peer To Patent. Locate prior art and make patent trolls get real jobs.

Also, see this: "A patent improvement: Intellectual property: A new scheme will solicit comments via the internet to improve the vetting of patent applications".
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Software Patents
Published at DZone with permission of Steven Lott, author and DZone MVB. (source)

(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)

Comments

Mike P(Okidoky) replied on Fri, 2010/11/26 - 2:39pm

Here is a rational logical write up on software patents and the (lack of) freedom of speech:

http://www.philsalin.com/patents.html

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Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
— Brian Kernigan