When people think of the patents they automatically think protection. A closer examination of patents connected to the field of software indicates that companies are abusing patents, which demonstrates an undermining of the integrity of patent law. Currently many powerful companies retain a great quantity of patents and this is leading to an unfair situation in the software world. One person can hold a patent and this prevents other from creating something even better if it is remotely seen as being similar to what is referred to in that original patent. There are software ideas that have patents that really should not within the realm of software development. Finally, the massive acquirement of patents represents an unethical act, which defies
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One such patent is related to voice recognition software. This patent was filed in 1981 and granted in 1984. The summary for this patent indicates “the voice signature of an interrogated person uttering a key word into a microphone is compared in a pattern matcher with the previously stored voice signature of a known person uttering the same key word to obtain a first similarity score” (Feix and Ruell). Michael Phillip’s attempted to create this very same software and was working on it for three decades. Paul Ricci from Nuance sued him as his company held the patent for something like this product. Ricci told Phillip’s he could sell his firm to Nuance or he would sue him for patent infringement. Phillip could not allow his life’s work to be handed over to someone based on the unfair process that he felt existed. The money that was supposed to go to R&D now went to cover his lawyer fees. He won the case but it cost him $3 million and he had to sell his company to Ricci in the end (Duhigg and Lohr). There are so many companies working on the same thing at the same time but one company has to have the foresight to get the patent. The way technology is evolving the concept for creating the newest thing is an idea that many will have and pursue at the same time. Patents previously were related to one of a kind and unique ideas. Software today follows a natural progression and the pursuit of innovation and …show more content…
Google for example in 2011 was granted 754 patents in one week. The company says they are just trying to compete with other companies like Apple and Microsoft (Womack and Tracer). Google purchased Motorola including their 17,000 patents. This type of behaviour means that an oligopoly will be formed. Only large companies that can afford to get all these patents or purchase them through the acquisitions of companies will be able to compete in this market. Smaller companies will not be able to contend within this business realm. Companies are using patents like bargaining chips. One of the things that can be done with these patents is to use it to counteract a company that is suing them over another patent. If a company is being sued they can then indicate that they have a patent over something else to use against them. These patents are also being used in the courts to be provided as a settlement against a loss that can be occurred. The use of these patents like trading cards indicates that there is a problem with how these patents are being acquired and then abused. Google’s many patents are similar to other large companies indicating that these patents are in fact meaningless if they are collected in such a manner and can be easily used within all styles of
One such patent is related to voice recognition software. This patent was filed in 1981 and granted in 1984. The summary for this patent indicates “the voice signature of an interrogated person uttering a key word into a microphone is compared in a pattern matcher with the previously stored voice signature of a known person uttering the same key word to obtain a first similarity score” (Feix and Ruell). Michael Phillip’s attempted to create this very same software and was working on it for three decades. Paul Ricci from Nuance sued him as his company held the patent for something like this product. Ricci told Phillip’s he could sell his firm to Nuance or he would sue him for patent infringement. Phillip could not allow his life’s work to be handed over to someone based on the unfair process that he felt existed. The money that was supposed to go to R&D now went to cover his lawyer fees. He won the case but it cost him $3 million and he had to sell his company to Ricci in the end (Duhigg and Lohr). There are so many companies working on the same thing at the same time but one company has to have the foresight to get the patent. The way technology is evolving the concept for creating the newest thing is an idea that many will have and pursue at the same time. Patents previously were related to one of a kind and unique ideas. Software today follows a natural progression and the pursuit of innovation and …show more content…
Google for example in 2011 was granted 754 patents in one week. The company says they are just trying to compete with other companies like Apple and Microsoft (Womack and Tracer). Google purchased Motorola including their 17,000 patents. This type of behaviour means that an oligopoly will be formed. Only large companies that can afford to get all these patents or purchase them through the acquisitions of companies will be able to compete in this market. Smaller companies will not be able to contend within this business realm. Companies are using patents like bargaining chips. One of the things that can be done with these patents is to use it to counteract a company that is suing them over another patent. If a company is being sued they can then indicate that they have a patent over something else to use against them. These patents are also being used in the courts to be provided as a settlement against a loss that can be occurred. The use of these patents like trading cards indicates that there is a problem with how these patents are being acquired and then abused. Google’s many patents are similar to other large companies indicating that these patents are in fact meaningless if they are collected in such a manner and can be easily used within all styles of