http://www.wired.com/2015/02/eff-eliminate-software-patents/
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that works to protect peoples rights and freedoms in a digital world, released a proposal for improving the US patent system. One of the suggestions in the proposal is to “Abolish Software Patents” (Kamdar, Nazer, and Ranieri 27). I agree with this idea. Software is changing so quickly that a patent made today may have no relevance in five years. In addition software patents can make it harder for new companies to get started due to the possibility of a lawsuit given the broad nature of some patents. I feel that what really distinguishes one software solution from another is how well they implement the idea behind the software, and not the idea itself. These specific implementations can be protected by copyright law and trade secret, so getting rid of software patents will have little effect.
Works Cited
Kamdar, Adi, Daniel Nazer, and Vera Ranieri. “Defend Innovation: How to Fix Our Broken Patent System.” Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.