Intellectual property Toolkit
Story: Could 'quality patents' end software wrangles?
Interesting...
“While there is no compromise between the two extremes, some have argued that what is needed is a sort of halfway house that recognises the needs of both sides.”
...but unless granting software patents (even only 'high quality' and/or shorter? ones) reasonably definitely is of overall benefit, that is just an argumentum ad temperantiam. The “self-serving” claims of software patent owning firms about their need for such patents are no more convincing to us now than the similar claims of the “chemical, electronic and other industries” were to Machlup.
If 'high quality' software patents are actually possible and practicable, by all means let's try them and see if they really can enhance progress and economic welfare - implausible though that hypothesis may be! And unless and until such a trial can be initiated, let's stick with the free market and an interpretation of the EPC Art. 52 exclusions which doesn't leave us wondering whether to laugh or cry ;-)
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