ARTICLE · 24 JULY 2014

Kickstarting An Old Patent System For The New Software Era

Fenwick

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Software patents have been having a rough time of it lately. It seems everyone has something bad to say about them, from the courts to the press.

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Daniel Brownstone

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Software patents have been having a rough time of it lately. It seems everyone has something bad to say about them, from the courts to the press, and even some software engineers.

And truly it is software that is being singled out as the villain in the patent universe—Vanity Fair has yet to publish an expose on "the razor blade wars," nor has the Supreme Court addressed the important question of whether a chainsaw is merely an abstract idea. Patents on starting a car with just one click have seldom been the subject of disdain in the blogosphere.

This nadir, however, presents an opportune time to look for creative solutions to patent protection for software, including a new opt-in alternative for obtaining software patents.

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