6th
Patents
Two interesting posts by Brad Feld regarding patents today: the first hoping for a “grass roots movement of experienced software engineers around software patents for defensive purposes only”, even going so far as to make it part of some official contract (whether between the company/patent owner and the USPTO, or between the company and the employee who is named on the patent, isn’t entirely clear).
I understand the emotion underneath the concept; the tricky part of any such contract would be defining what “defensive purposes” are. In particular, is threatening to use patent X to counter-sue a competitor who wants to sue you for violating a different patent Y “defensive”?
The second post is simply amusing, suggesting that a large number of patent decisions made since 2000 might be simply invalidated due to a screwup in the judge appointment process.
The question of software patents and intellectual property in general is a contentious one; I haven’t figured out exactly where I stand on it. Perhaps I’ll cogitate further and speculate on it in a future post…
