Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 23 Dec 1998 18:15:39 -0700 (MST) | From | Richard Stallman <> | Subject | Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux |
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Does IBM deserve a patent that a high-schooler can reinvent?
The US Constitution and the US legal system have an interesting view of the question--and it isn't what most people think it is. Their view is that patents don't exist for the sake of patent owners. The official reason for patents in the US is "to promote progress."
So it isn't even relevant to ask, "Does IBM deserve a patent." Instead, the question is, "Did giving IBM that patent promote progress?" If high-school students are going to find the same "invention" on their own, the answer is probably no.
But one can say more than that. There is no sign that progress in software is any faster today than it was in 1980, before there were patents in the field of software. This suggests that software patents in general fail to promote progress, and that patents should be eliminated from the software field.
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