The patent system is designed to encourage replacement of the patented technology.
Think back to when patents started. The requirement was that the invention be detailed, that directions for its construction and use be given, in clear language others could follow.
The whole idea was to get improvements into the patent office.
This was natural at a time where patents were filed by individuals. But now that patents are filed by corporations, this has been turned on its head.
Today, patents are designed to prevent advance. Anything that emerges which is similar in technology intent to what was patented by a corporation or a patent troll is brought to court.
This is what is wrong with software and business methods patents. They don’t protect a how of something. They protect a what. They don’t encourage innovation, as the original patent system did. They try to prevent it.
And every legal victory for that phony "intellectual property" regime,
like NTP’s successful shakedown of RIM, takes us further from the
patent system’s actual goal — which is to encourage innovation.
Let me summarize. Patents were designed as an open source process. It
has become a closed source process, and needs to be reformed back to
the "original intent" of the system’s founders.
