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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Standards and patents

Richard Allen comments on the EU move towards software patents.

I have not seen any compelling evidence to suggest that software development is being held up by an inability to secure patent on new ideas.

There’s so much to be said on this topic, but one important dimension to the debate that I think is being neglected is the lack of protection for standards. Once a technology has, through an open process, been incorporated into a ratified standard from a recognised body like W3C, it should be impossible to assert patent rights over it unless they were asserted during the standardisation process.

The lack of this protection in the case of the embedded code patent asserted by Eolas threatens the very fabric of the Web, as Noel has said [via Sean].

initially most people laughed, "Ha ha, they f----ed Microsoft!", until it
slowly began to dawn on people that this is a huge problem.

When it becomes impossible to create a pool of open, shared standards for common use, it becomes impossible for massive-connected-ness to emerge and our future will stall - corporate ownership is not an option.

Without a legal protection for standards against retrospective attack by software patents we will suffer death by a thousand gold-diggers as we try to navigate into the massively-connected future. If, as regrettably seems to be the case, the EU is going to encourage software patents, there should at least be an escape clause to give privileged status to technologies in standards. Get to it, Richard - the pause for reflection is the ideal time to introduce a balancing proposal!

posted at 10:10 PM (UK) | |