On Wed, 2004-08-12 at 21:47 +0100, Pedro Lozano wrote: > Then I dont understand why there are companies pushing for the aproval of > software patents in europe and worldwide. To patent stupid things and not > using these patents for anything?
I went to a talk by a (North American) patent lawyer about how to patent your software. It was all about how you "should" intentionally try to make your patent as incredibly vague as possible, so it encompasses as wide a range of things as possible. Complete with really bad, totally inapplicable metaphors about physical objects of course. I brought up the European software patent issue and he adamantly claimed that Europe had software patents right now. The idea of software patents not being valid in Europe was just ridiculous to him. Not surprising, given that this guy's career is making the most retarded patents possible, but still - never underestimate these kinds of people. I doubt the lawyers at these companies think to themselves "gee, this patent isn't really valid at all, but I better make/defend it anyway so we can combat our competitor's equally trivial invalid patents". They're jaded idiots, and they probably really do think software patents are a completely valid thing. Heck, if there anything like the typical lawyers I've talked to, the idea of software patents NOT being valid is crazy talk. -DR-
