From: Richard Stallman (rms@gnu.org)
Date: Mon Dec 27 1999 - 23:41:39 MST
My short-to-intermediate term answer is to suggest establishing a public
idea registry and invite all those people who have really cool ideas for
which they can't find a backer or don't have the time to implement to
log on
and publish to the world!
This is a common thing to suggest, but I don't think it would change
the situation much. It might at best prevent a certain fraction of
the absurd patents from being issued. But even if it prevented half
of them, that would not make a big difference. Once there are a large
number of these absurd patents, twice as many or half as many doesn't
matter much.
The effect of this registry would be further reduced by the low
standard or "unobvious" used by the patent system. The patent office
might refuse to issue patents for ideas that you have "registered" but
it would still issue patents for ideas that are very slightly
different, or transplanted to a newer context.
Meanwhile, the obvious patents are not the only ones that cause
trouble for software developers. The unobvious patents cause trouble
too. Look at the trouble that the GIF patent has caused, and the
public-key encryption patents.
In the end, working on teaching the patent office about the prior art
is a tremendous job, and a distraction from any real solution to the
problem. I fear it will mainly enable the supporters of patents to
tell everyone that, "The problem is being addressed, so don't worry,"
while diverting the impetus for change down a path that cannot make
a significant change.
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