kdarling,i don't know where you get your information on software patents getting "going"in 1990's.
Bill Gates microsoft patents were late 70s-early 80's and beyond.
Apple patented the mac OS in 80's/early 90's lawsuits followed quickly. Even thought Xerox PARC owned the rights oops software patents. Oracle, Lotus and others held patents since 70's.
I got my information by living through those times as a software developer
You're basically confusing patents, copyrights, and trademarks. It's okay, people do that.
Until the 1990s, everyone relied mostly on copyrights to protect their code implementation, and copyrights / trademarks / trade dress to protect their visuals. This worked fine for most programs, games, you name it.
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So why the difference today than 20-40 years ago? Attorneys and new profit models for companies.
Many people believe it started with the Apple - Microsoft - Xerox lawsuits at the beginning of the 90s. Apple found that trademarks weren't enough to stop Microsoft Windows, and Xerox found that copyrights were not enough to get credit for their GUI work. Thus, a move to patents.
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Innovation by sharing information is less important than capitalization. This is the illness that resulted in world economies being sucked dry by the few "too big to fail" corporations with no reprocussions to the corporate executives.
I think you have some good points.
It's interesting that the EU struck down an attempt in 2005 to allow software patents. The argument was that software patents actually inhibit innovation, and thus are a detriment to the public interest.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronf57
kdarling,i don't know where you get your information on software patents getting "going"in 1990's.
Bill Gates microsoft patents were late 70s-early 80's and beyond.
Apple patented the mac OS in 80's/early 90's lawsuits followed quickly. Even thought Xerox PARC owned the rights oops software patents. Oracle, Lotus and others held patents since 70's.
I got my information by living through those times as a software developer
You're basically confusing patents, copyrights, and trademarks. It's okay, people do that.
Until the 1990s, everyone relied mostly on copyrights to protect their code implementation, and copyrights / trademarks / trade dress to protect their visuals. This worked fine for most programs, games, you name it.
Quote:
So why the difference today than 20-40 years ago? Attorneys and new profit models for companies.
Many people believe it started with the Apple - Microsoft - Xerox lawsuits at the beginning of the 90s. Apple found that trademarks weren't enough to stop Microsoft Windows, and Xerox found that copyrights were not enough to get credit for their GUI work. Thus, a move to patents.
Quote:
Innovation by sharing information is less important than capitalization. This is the illness that resulted in world economies being sucked dry by the few "too big to fail" corporations with no reprocussions to the corporate executives.
I think you have some good points.
It's interesting that the EU struck down an attempt in 2005 to allow software patents. The argument was that software patents actually inhibit innovation, and thus are a detriment to the public interest.