What problems do you see with software patents exactly?
First of all, there is not really any fair defence to patents the way there is to copyright law. And a lot of times the patents are granted for things that are pretty obvious. Amazon's One-Click feature is something that is pretty obvious and intuitive to a lot of people. To grant a patent on the likes of that devalues the whole system. It goes too far.
What is causing this?
The cause comes from the large commercial interests pushing this agenda -- the large software companies like Microsoft who have a lot of capital, a lot of money. They stand to gain quite a lot by the passage of these types of directive. Legislators all over the world pay attention to money, and when you have deep pockets funding this effort you can expect to see a lot of bad laws passed. The software industry has very deep pockets.
And what about the role of the patent offices? What do you see them doing wrong?
There are a lot of problems with patent offices. In the US they are very often paid by the number of patents they handle so there is a large incentive to get a patent approved and move on to the next one. There is an incredible workload due to the demand, but because they have granted too many frivolous patents they have created the workload for themselves, because everyone wants one [frivolous patent]. These offices are getting larger funding, getting greater funding, and so the business itself is growing.
What do you think about what is happening in Europe?
Europe is going the wrong way, just following what the US has done. We have created a huge mess in the US with our laws, and for other countries to follow down the same path makes very little sense judging from the harm we have seen. Europeans and others should be wise to learn from the mistakes the US has made.
But the pressure is from many quarters: Hollywood, the recording industry -- all are powerful interests who have an agenda to push US laws oversees. It is the interest of a very few large corporations, to the detriment of everybody else. It is politicians looking for campaign contributions; then, when they draw up laws, they look to the people who gave them money.
What can we do about this?
Small developers and companies should fight very hard against these laws. They are not a fait accompli, and if there is enough outcry from public and businesses there is a good chance that Europe will not go in this direction. The challenge is to educate the lawmakers, business leaders and general public about the harm we have experienced.
