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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Patents on progress

Surfing tonight I've seen a couple of patents on what folk regard as obvious - Jon comments on XML pull parsers, and Gadgetopia on streaming media (and at least one other I can't find). How can we possibly carry on like this? Patents protecting innovation are one thing, and I can find space in my thoughts for them. Patents taxing standardisation are another. They stop the net effect from catalysing. They are surely anathema in a fast-paced, techno-centric culture?

I've commented before on this subject but I'd like to reiterate my personal position:

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.

I think that provides a reasonable compromise, and though I can at this point only speak for me, I'd love to see a body of us articulating that position and getting it into the law in some places that matter like the EU. If we don't patents will have become a tax by the unethical on progress.

posted at 5:33 AM (UK) | |