CSC 379:Week 2, Group 3

Software Patents

Overview

JPEG patent http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051215/1210207.shtml
Patent Trolling http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070223/022129.shtml
Are software patents evil http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html
Defining Patent Trolls http://www.techliberation.com/archives/039648.php
nuclear stockpiling http://www.techliberation.com/archives/042299.php

Patent Trolls

A "patent troll" is a company that holds patents without making any products off the ideas with the intent of using the patents to sue other companies that bring similar ideas to fruition. In almost all cases, the company that is sued, doesn't realize that a software patent exists, but in fact imagined the solution that it allegedly stole on its own. Patent Trolls essentially take advantage of the problems present in software patenting.

An important distinction about patent trolling as opposed to other patent litigation is that the patent troll developed no software using its acquired patent. This prevents the other company from using the typical nuclear stockpiling defense mechanism. This presents a small ethical quandary: is it ethical to sue a company that can not sue back? The immediate response is "Yes; the ability of the other company to sue back should not be under consideration." However, patent trolls are quite obviously using their software patents as weapons against an unarmed opponent.

Nuclear Stockpiling

Since it is nearly impossible to write software without infringing on software patents, ...

Discussion Questions

• What are the ethical implications of having businesses devoted solely to acquiring, holding, and enforcing patents through lawsuits? What are the costs and benefits posed by allowing these “cottage industries” to exist?

• Often groups will not enforce patents through lawsuits due to the risk of their patents being found invalid. They have found that it is often more wise to acquire and hold patents as a deterrent to competition. These actions pose a risk to software developers that do not have patents of their own to balance the threats. Examine the ethical considerations of this practice and of the responses to counter patent litigation threats.

• Google Patent Search [1] has made it easier to locate patents to determine if a work to be created may infringe on an idea an existing patent covers. However due to the broad specifications included in patents (and that are sometimes encouraged by legal advisors to make patents more valuable), having quick access to patents still does not provide much peace of mind for software developers. Even operating systems adopted on millions of computers have been accused of infringing on hundreds of patents. What are some ethical considerations of developing software that likely infringes on patents?