Read all 'tragedy of the anticommons' posts in The Open Road
August 22, 2008 11:07 AM PDT
Lest IBM be accused of being the only big software vendor to apply for and receive silly patents, Microsoft is proving its silliness mettle with the award of a patent on Page Up/Page Down functionality. And to think that I've been using that functionality for years without knowing that Microsoft had yet to invent it!
I used to believe that patents had to be non-obvious to make the cut, but Microsoft here demonstrates that the only obvious thing about patents is that the more they encumber the industry with both silly and even useful "inventions," innovation will be stifled. Indeed, it already has been.
We're veering toward a tragedy of the anti-commons, indeed.
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