Comments on: Lawmakers gear up for patent system overhaul

Key House panel is all for introducing a patent reform bill, but agreeing on details could prove a daunting task.

[ArbitraryThinker]

Nice but the bigger problem is...

Certainly patent reform would be nice. But how can lawmakers understand the value in better patent management while they have actively delegated the wholesale licensing and management of our culture to a group of corporations? I don't have anything against businesses and love capitalism however the big problem Congress should solve is copyright reform, not patent reform. The current copyright system is about controlling content and restricting innovation and competition rather than fostering it.

[billmosby]

Bigger?

Patents or copyrights- which is the bigger problem? Kind of
depends on your point of view, which depends on what business
you are in. I am creating a software product and trying to make
decisions about its design based partly on what is already
patented in the field. Obviousness and prior art seem to be no
barrier to obtaining a software patent from what I have seen.
Very small extensions of very well know user interface
techniques have been blessed by the patent "examiners" in the
last several years. I was a lot happier when user interface
designs were deemed copyrightable but not patentable. But
that's just me.

[Penguinisto]

C'mon - just ditch software patents...

...and the only people who suffer are patent lawyers and
corporate legal departments. Meanwhile, developers everywhere
benefit immeasurably.

Win-win, folks.

Of course, expect to see the likes of Microsoft shovel money by
the truckload towards politicians in an attempt to buy^H^H^H
persuade politicians to not do that.

/P