[DMCA-Activists] Ralph Nader Busts Software Patents

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Boing Boing Blog.  Article text pasted below.  -- Seth)


-------- Original Message --------
    Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 06:51:32 -0800
    From: "Cory Doctorow" <address@hidden>
      To: address@hidden


Short, fiery interview from Ralph Nader about the disgusting state of
the US  Patent System: 

    Name one genius inventor who has gotten rich from a software 
patent. There must be some, but the system mostly benefits a  handful of
businesspeople and lawyers who don't write code.  Look at British
Telecom. It took years before BT's patent lawyers  "discovered" the
company had invented hypertext linking. Now  General Electric claims it
invented the JPEG file format. If GE is  so smart, why did it take so
many years to figure out it invented  such a popular technology? Which
genius inventors get rich on  such claims?

Link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.03/view.html?pg=3
Discuss: http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/g87LfZRc8xk

--

Posted by Cory Doctorow to Boing Boing Blog at 2/28/2003 6:50:26 AM

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> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.03/view.html?pg=3

hot seat

Ralph Nader, Patent Buster


America's consumer watchdog has a bone to pick with the US Trade
Representative. The USTR is lobbying foreign countries to adopt
America's liberal approach to issuing patents and to honor US patents
granted for business methods, such as Amazon's 1-Click ordering. Backed
by his advocacy group, the Consumer Project on Technology
(www.cptech.org), Nader argues that exporting a flawed policy is a
mistake. We caught up with him in Washington to find out why he believes
US patent evangelism is a problem. 

WIRED: What's wrong with pushing US patent policy overseas?

NADER: The United States spends more than $1 billion annually to examine
patents. Despite this expenditure, the Patent Office has become a
glorified diploma mill, routinely granting rights that should never have
been issued. The patents wouldn't stand up in court, but they're
expensive to litigate. So why are we forcing developing countries to
follow our lead when we don't do a good job ourselves?

The system must be working for someone. Who benefits? 

The system protects two groups: software companies with weak products
who use patents to harass competitors, and patent lawyers. The ease of
getting patents makes it economically attractive to abuse the system in
a number of unpleasant ways. People obtain patents and then ask
businesses to pay licensing fees that are cheaper than the cost of
mounting a legal defense. Also, firms are wary of investing in new
products for fear they will be ambushed by an infringement claim that
may or may not be valid but will cost millions in legal fees.

Limiting software patents might prevent abuses, but wouldn't that also
limit the ability of genius inventors to profit from their own code?

Name one genius inventor who has gotten rich from a software patent.
There must be some, but the system mostly benefits a handful of
businesspeople and lawyers who don't write code. Look at British
Telecom. It took years before BT's patent lawyers "discovered" the
company had invented hypertext linking. Now General Electric claims it
invented the JPEG file format. If GE is so smart, why did it take so
many years to figure out it invented such a popular technology? Which
genius inventors get rich on such claims? 

- Joshua Davis