Software Patents Debate

Software patents are a failure. Software shouldn't be patentable. I bet software innovation would increase, not decrease, without patents.

Why abolish software patents but not all patents?

How are software patents different than non-software patents? It seems to me we should encourage the USPTO to stop issuing silly patents, software or otherwise. Or we should resist all patents. But, if a patent system is a worthwhile thing for a society to have, then software patents are as legitimate as any other.

Patents only cover certain types of creative behavior for which patent protection makes sense as a way to encourage innovation. For example, it's never been possible to patent the plot of a novel, and up until recently it wasn't possible to patent an abstract business process or method.The argument, then, is that patents on software are A) unnecessary to encourage innovation and B) actively discourage innovation. The argument for A) is that plenty of software development happened prior to i

Is this still an issue if you don't own any software patents?

Software patents aren't particularly useful for making money with software. Hackers produce code, which is protected by copyright, and that's how the law protects them from having their work stolen. Patents are a bad match for software, and are mainly used for two things:1. Trolls use them to seek rent from independent creations.2. Companies that are not purely trolls but need a vector to attack another company sometimes use them in the same way trolls do.3. Entities that actu

Are software patents really hindering innovation in the US? What startups were stopped because of software patents?

Software is already covered by /copyright/ law. It does not need patents.

You don't understand software patents.

Aren’t software patents already all but abolished?