Story: Patent system needs a 'Slashdot for prior art'
Posted by: Olavi Petri (Monday 24 April 2006, 6:43 PM)
Been there. Done that. How about more sensible patent law instead?
Seriously, that idea has been tried several times. BountyQuest is one such project that comes to mind.
However, the problem is not finding the prior art. The problem is that patents should not be extented to software, algorithmsm, heuristics or methods. Pretty much 100% of the software technologies that we use daily in our computers were developed in an era where they were covered by copyright and not patetns.
Europe needs to be taking a sharp look at these problems gonig on in the US and ask itself whether it wants to join in and take these problems on themselves of their own free will?
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