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Re: [ossig] Don't stifle innovation
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Just a naive thought... can we simply patent something and release such
patent free? Is there a cost tied to patent and how much is it? Where
can we find such information?
Dinesh Nair wrote:
>
> a letter which ditesh, soo hoe and i sent out to in.tech. it's published at
> http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2005/4/19/itfeature/10659004&sec=itfeature
>
>
> Don't stifle innovation
>
> WE REFER to the article entitled Slow patenting process threatens
> innovation by M. Krishnamoorthy (see In.Tech, April 5). The article
> gives the impression that the primary indicator of a country's
> competitiveness and technology prowess is the number of patents that it
> can garner.
>
> This is misleading and what is even more worrying is the inclusion of
> comments which seem to indicate that the information and communications
> technology (ICT) industry should also be actively pursuing patents.
>
> The pursuit of patents in the ICT industry will ultimately lead to the
> issuance of software patents. This is a hotly-debated subject as many
> people in the industry are of the view that the recognition of software
> patents will stifle software development and innovation. Presently, the
> European Parliament is in the midst of intense debate on the validity of
> software patents for these very same reasons.
>
> This is especially so for a country like Malaysia which is just
> starting to develop its software industry and encouraging its developers
> to branch out globally both in software products and services.
>
> The development of software involves the usage of ideas, processes and
> functions which are abstract, obvious and have been used by many others
> before.
>
> If these ideas were to be patented, a tremendous amount of resources
> have to be expended to check for patent infringement even before any
> software project can commence. This would effectively create artificial
> barriers to the creation of new software technologies and in the process
> raises the costs associated with creating software.
>
> Such a scenario is detrimental to Malaysia's ambitions of achieving
> first world status in technology creation.
>
> Software developers would be forced to commit to patent licensing fees
> to the patent holders (which could run into millions of ringgit) even
> before they have commenced writing a single line of program code. While
> larger software companies may be able to afford these as they will have
> the necessary resources and legal infrastructure in place, the same
> cannot be said for startups.
>
> These additional burdens will be hefty for startups, many of whom will
> lack the resources needed to tackle this issue.
>
> Smaller companies will not even be able to afford the resources for a
> proper patent and prior art search, let alone afford the costs of
> challenging patents which are trivial and obvious and should not have
> been granted to begin with. This will smother the nascent software
> industry we have today.
>
> The In.Tech article also included a comment which suggested that
> patents should be granted more swiftly locally. For the case of software
> patents, if the patents office lacks adequate technical and/or manpower
> resources, this will lead to the danger of patent applications not being
> adequately scrutinised for established usage (prior art) and also the
> risk of ideas and functionalities which are too generic or too abstract
> being granted patents.
>
> As it stands today, it is already proving to be very difficult for
> patents offices in highly-developed countries like the United States not
> to make mistakes like these. Many examples abound of bad software
> patents being granted and, in some cases, overturned, when challenged in
> court. Again the most affected will be the small startups which lack the
> legal and financial resources to challenge a patent claim.
>
> Currently software patents are not recognised in Malaysia (as far as we
> know) and it should remain so. Contrary to what some of the individuals
> quoted in the article may imply, there is no chance of Malaysia ever
> achieving technological independence and building our domestic software
> capacity if software patents are allowed.
>
> Local software developers and companies will suffer as they have little
> or no patent arsenal to fall back on.
>
> Only the large multinational corporates that have amassed a vast patent
> arsenal will benefit by using these to effectively stifle innovation and
> to establish a commercial monopoly, at the cost of inhibiting Malaysia's
> software capacity.
>
> Dr Nah Soo Hoe, Dinesh Nair, Ditesh Kumar
> (via e-mail)
>
- --
Yeak Nai Siew << Mac OS Forever >> << Linux Forever>>
System Consultant, RHCE
Red Hat made available RHCE credential verification service online.
See http://www.redhat.com/rhce/rhce806200928901893.html
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