Software Patents Must be Eliminated :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Softw are Patents Must be EliminatedSoftware patents threaten to forsake Americas computer industry. Patents granted in the past decade are right off being pulmonary tuberculosisd to attack companies such as the Lotus victimization Corporation for selling programs that they have supremely developed. Soon new companies impart often be barred from the software arena--most major programs will implore indorses for dozens of patents, and this will make them infeasible. This problem has only one firmness of purpose software patents must be eliminated. The Patent System and figurer ProgramsThe framers of the get together States Constitution established the patent system so that inventors would have an incentive to share their inventions with the commonplace public. In exchange for divulging an invention, the patent grants the inventor a 17 year monopoly on its use. The patent holder endure license others to use the invention, but may also refuse to do so. indie reinvention of the same technique by others does not give them the right to use it. Patents do not cover specific systems instead, they cover particular techniques that can be employ to build systems, or particular features that systems can walk. erstwhile a technique or feature is patented, it may not be used in a system without the permission of the patent-holder--even if it is implemented in a different way. Since a computer program typically uses umteen techniques and provides many features, it can infringe many patents at once. Until recently, patents were not used in the software field. Software developers copyrighted individual programs or do them trade secrets. Copyright was traditionally understood to cover the implementation expound of a particular program it did not cover the features of the program, or the general methods used. And trade secrecy, by definition, could not prohibit any nurture dissemble by someone who did not know the secret. On this basis, software development w as extremely profitable, and received considerable investment, without any prohibition on independent software development. But this scheme of things is no more. A change in U.S. government policy in the early 1980s stimulated a outflow of applications. Now many have been approved, and the rate is accelerating. Many programmers are incognizant of the change and do not appreciate the magnitude of its effects. Today the lawsuits are just beginning. Absurd PatentsThe Patent Office and the courts have had a heavy time with computer software. The Patent Office refused until recently to hire Computer Science graduates as examiners, and in any case does not offer competitive salaries for the field.