This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Carlos Perez.
Original Post: Will Software Patents Destroy The U.S. Software Industry?
Feed Title: .:Manageability:.
Feed URL: http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/rssDisabled?portal_status_message=Syndication+is+Disabled
Feed Description: Random thoughts on the manageability of complex software.
There's a pretty disturbing thread going on a TheServerSide. It was supposed to be a discussion about Hibernate, unfortunately its degenerated into an extremely heated and personal shouting match between the Ward Mullins (CTO of ThoughtInc) and Gavin King (co-author of Hibernate). Apparently, Ward is taking the playbook out of SCO, and playing the Patent FUD game. That is, if you're not a commercial entity, then the software you're distributing hasn't been cleared by the lawyers and it just might be possible that you might be violating someone's intellectual property (i.e. IP). Software Patents is now a weapon of choice to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Disinformation against a competitor. It doesn't matter that your patents will hold up in the court of law, it doesn't matter if you can extract compensation, what seems to matter is that you can make customers of a competitor think twice. It's an extremely bad situation, where business is won, rather than competing on merits, but on mudslinging.
In fact the trend looks like it's turning for the worse as evidence by two recent articles from CNET. Overture's business strategy to leverage its patent portfolio. Pinpoint, a company who's sole business model is suing other companies for patent infringement. We are now seeing the horrible consequences of the US patent office misguided policies to allow the patenting of software and business practices and to compound it with turning the office into a money making business rather than a public trust. The US software industry could eventually consist mostly of intellectual property lawyers trying to untangle the patent mess. The reality is, the rampant approval of questionable software patents has made it impossible for any software written to avoid infringing on an existing patent.
The only reason why we don't see even more rampant lawsuits is that its simply not worth it to sue someone without deep pockets. That however doesn't prevent companies for making unsubstantiated threats. So far things have remain relatively sane, that's because the bigger companies don't risk suing each other, afterall they all have something to lose. However, what happens if you've got companies with nothing to loose, that is companies whose sole business is not making software but rather suing companies. They aren't worried about a counter suit, you can't sue a lawyer for suing you.
The future looks pretty grim, it doesn't help that a lot of companies are already outsourcing IT work outside the US, maybe that's just the only place to legally do innovative software development. U.S. Software firms for all intents and purpose would end up as subsidiaries of law firms. The consolation maybe that you can still make a living programming only using "standards". Just make sure you don't innovate, that's something you either have to clear with the lawyers or done offshore!
Previous Topic
