Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:
Microsoft has clearly decided it is not going to get taken by another
Eolas type patent. Short of the USPTO burning down a second time
and all records being lost (if only!)
Please do not wish for something like that. It would be horrible.
The best protection we have against the patent system is the system
itself.
It is already admittedly failing to be able to properly review the
increasing volume of incoming patents.
It is the bulk of existing patents - both recent and expired, that
provide the greatest protection against
the barage coming in.
It is the massive volume coming in that will choke the system - and
in the worst case scenario
atleast twenty years from now all patents currently in effect will
have expired
But every expired patent becomes an obstacle to granting a new one
anywhere close.
While I beleive that all patents - but particularly software patents
are just plain a bad idea.
it is unlikely that theoretical arguments about the failure of the
patent system to actually serve
the purpose it was intended for will ever matter.
But the practical failure of the system to work becoming mired in
its own exponential growth
as well as the technical problems of trying to distinguish the ever
diminishing gnats difference
between an existing or expired patent and a new one will eventually
kill it.