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UK Software Patent Petition
There is currently a petition on the Prime Minister's website calling for a clear ban on software patents. I was hesitant to sign it, not because I want software patents, but due to the langauge of the petition.
Software patents are used by convicted monopolists to threaten customers who consider using rival software. As a result, patents stifle innovation.
Patents are supposed to increase the rate of innovation by publicising how inventions work. Reading a software patent gives no useful information for creating or improving software. All patents are writen in a sufficiently cryptic language to prevent them from being of any use. Once decoded, the patents turn out to be for something so obvious that programmers find them laughable.
It is not funny because the cost of defending against nuicance lawsuites is huge.
The UK patent office grants software patents against the letter and the spirit of the law. They do this by pretending that there is a difference between software and 'computer implemented inventions'.
Some companies waste money on 'defensive patents'. These have no value against pure litigation companies and do not counter threats made directly to customers.
The aggressive and ad-hominem language doesn't do anything to help the cause. It looks unprofessional and will result in the authorities ignoring it as a fanatic incoherent rant and will put off people from signing the petition. I'd be interested to know how many people didn't sign because of the text.
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