Why Patents Need to Be Abolished, Now (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Apple just got an Android tablet called the Samsung Galaxy Tab banned in Australia and Europe, thanks to its supposed infringements of Apple patents. Apple's also trying to get all Android smartphones and tablets made by HTC banned, and it's taking potshots at the Motorola Xoom as well. All three companies are firing back with their own countersuits, giving the whole proceedings the feel of global nuclear armageddon.

How did this happen? Aren't patents supposed to encourage innovation? I grew up being taught that inventors like Thomas Edison raced to discovery, so that they could file a patent on it. I never imagined a world where patents would be used as weapons of war, but that's what it's come to these days.

Here's why the patent system as we know it is broken, and why we need to get rid of it now:

It's impossible not to infringe patents

Take another look at that ZDnet article about the Apple / HTC lawsuit. It mentions, in passing, two of the patents in question, which Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents translates from jargonese into plain English. One is basically a patent on making email links clickable, while the other is a "plumbing"-related patent that it's basically impossible for any smart gadget not to infringe.

In a nutshell, our patent law made it possible for Apple to describe the obvious steps for making a tablet or smartphone, and then sue anyone who took the same obvious steps. So this isn't a matter of how Samsung's devices look eerily similar to Apple's; it's a matter of how Apple wants to be the only one allowed to make smartphones and tablets, period. And since Apple's gotten so fat and powerful that it now has more cash than the federal government, it's getting its way, and is literally outlawing its competition.

It takes people away from the drawing board

And puts them to work in the courtroom instead. Take yet another look at that article, and note the numbers attached to those two patents. The second one is US Patent number 6,343,263. How many employees does it take to write up all those patents? How much taxpayer money does it take to let these companies use our country's courts as tools of warfare? And how many people aren't even going into the smartphone or tablet business, because they're afraid this will happen to them?

This isn't just a problem that affects big businesses, either. Because when it comes to patent law ...

It's used by the strong against the weak

I don't just mean Apple against the much smaller HTC. I mean well-funded "patent trolls" like Lodsys, against indie app developers like IconFactory. "Trolls" like Lodsys make no products, and invent nothing. Instead, they buy up some of those millions of patents, then go around finding people who may have infringed them by accident and sue them or demand settlements. Then they use the piles of money they get to find more people who can't defend themselves, and so on ad nauseam.

That's what patent law has turned into: Not the enabler of the next generation of Edisons, but a tax on smart and inventive people, that puts money in parasites' pockets. Oh, and a way for Apple to deny you the choice of buying a competitor's inferior product. How gracious.

That's why patent law needs to go. Or at the very least, it and its supporters should be forced to explain themselves. Now.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110810/us_ac/8944243_why_patents_need_to_be_abolished_now

http://www.indiantvserials.us/serial/index.php?action=profile;u=156796,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">watch the throne http://infinitygamingleague.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=86828,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">watch the throne http://www.inflightmeals.net/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=38104,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">cnn money http://www.insanebunkers.com/index.php?action=profile;u=4951,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">s p 500 http://www.immortalshaiya.net/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=12129,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">gold price per ounce http://integritybgh.com/talk/index.php?action=profile;u=29967,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">gold price per ounce http://ivffriends.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=8810,mizuno volleyball ankle braces">diana nyad