The chilling effect of software patents

[Martin Fouts]

>>>>> On 9 Feb 91 23:11:11 GMT, henry at zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) said:

Henry> In article <7802:Feb910:14:3891 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
       brnstnd at kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>The best solution would be for the LPF to push through legislation
>eliminating these patents permanently.

Henry> I'd rather see a shortening of patent length and a loosening of
Henry> terms than a complete ban.  The alternative to patents, all too
Henry> often, is secrecy. 

I think you are addressing a different issue.   The original posting
was in response to attempts to patent mathematical algorithms or prior
art.  It really doesn't matter if I keep secret my use of prior art,
since you can use the art yourself.

The issue are are starting to address is a little more difficult, but
not as much as you might think.  There really are very few effective
trade secrets, (Coke, McDonald's Secret Sauce, How NeXT stays in
business ;-) and most of those are countered competitively by doing
the same thing a different way, which is key.

If there is enough need for an algorithm, then it will be
independently discovered by enough people that at least one of them
will make it widely known.  This has been true since Leibnitz beat
whats-his-name to The Calculus ;-)

--
Martin Fouts
Software Craftsman

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