While browsing Slashdot this afternoon I saw something that truly amazed me, IBM was able to get a patent on switching checkboxes. To basically sum up the patent, they patented the ability to change the content of a page of program based on what you checked.
This is just one example of many horrible software patents that are ruining the world of technology. It is nearly impossible to start a new company due to the fact that there are so many patents for items that should be common knowledge. The reason for a patent is to protect ideas that are not something anybody would think of doing.
The best example of a decent patent use is in the pharmaceutical industry. To create a new drug a company has to invest billions of dollars in research, for this once they find something they should be able to patent the finding. However, even this has been taken too far; people are patenting the . These are genes inside of every single human being and yet people are able to patent them.
Patents started out as a decent way for a company to protect their research. Today patents are used to sue other companies into paying them royalties. There are companies out there such as SCO that have only survived on patent trolling. The only thing this company has done in the last 10 years is sue every other company in the world of Linux. They have not done anything to help the economy and not are finally going out of business. The problem is someone else will come along, it is just too easy to sponge off of someone else’s work.
Patents need a real makeover in the US. The problem is it will never happen. The people with money are the ones in charge and it is to their benefit to keep patents the way they currently are.
