Do patents mean that companies don't need to be truly competitive? If Apple are building iPhones with multi-touch, and their competitors copy the multi-touch feature, surely I'd rather buy an iPhone if its a better overall product at the right price.
Clearly patents originated from a "different world". Software highlights how fast ideas are moving and how dependant we are on the cumulative aggregation of software technologies and techniques. There are patents on object-relational mapping. But how would consider building a business app any other way? http://www.infoq.com/news/RedHat-Sued-Due-to-Hibernate-3-O We wrote something in 1999 which was pretty much the same model. Perhaps we should have patented it first and held the world to ransom. What seems wrong is when you would have to "go out of your way" to NOT breach a patent, not TO breach it. Its also interesting that the software patent debate is very vocal, aided by internet communications themselves. But I wonder how many "traditional manufactures" have been shut down or never got off the ground because they breached patents which were "questionable". -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
