Santa Clara Law: 2012 Solutions to the Software Patent Problem

Normally, an academic-oriented conference would debate the merits of software patents. This conference is different. Rather than having another debate, this conference will use a premise--that software patents are a problem--as a springboard for discussing ways to address those problems. In rapid succession, patent experts at the conference will present innovative proposals (ranging from abolishing software patents to company/industry self-help), debate their relative merits, and discuss how they might be implemented.

To extend the discussion, many of the speakers and other interested experts will publish short essays in Wired.com describing their proposed solution and advocating for its adoption. We hope conference attendees and Wired.com readers will embrace the best proposals and catalyze real action towards solving the software patent problem.

Organizers: Santa Clara Law Professors Colleen Chien and Eric Goldman

Source Santa Clara Law

Google says "Patent Wars Not Helpful to Anyone"

At an Aspen conference in Mountain View, Calif., Pablo Chavez, Google’s public policy director, referred to the patent wars, saying that they are not helpful to the marketplace or to innovation. He further said that patent wars are not helpful to the consumers at all.

However, there are many who see this statement as a reaction to the social search giant’s ongoing legal battles with Oracle, which Google won at trial, and Apple, which is still pending. Software patents are getting too controversial in technology circles, where most of the companies are taking its rivals to courts for infringing each other patents.

Source Tech Thirsty

Protect and serve

Protect and serve

By Computing blogs I am disappointed that your story reports that the High Court decision over Symbian's patent application "may benefit UK software makers" (High Court rewrites UK software patent rules). For each software maker that gets a monopoly over ...

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Spring 2008 - a UKUUG Conference Review

By nospam@example.com (Gavin Henry) Software patents and open standards - This was one hour of very interesting, worrying and intelligent discussion. It was good to see so much Catalyst usage too. The rest of the day was spent chatting with Matt and Mike, meeting lots of ...

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South African Minister vs Microsoft on Software Patents

South African Minister vs Microsoft on Software Patents

By Non-Hamster "The South African minister of public service and administration on Monday (3/25/08) addressed the opening of the Idlelo 3 free software conference in Dakar, Senegal, saying that software patents posed a considerable threat to the ...

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MySQL CEO pans software patents, touts open source

MySQL has become perhaps the most visible player in the open source database market. With revenues now at $20 million annually, the company is eyeing a greater enterprise presence with its upcoming MySQL 5.0 database, which will add features such as triggers to the product. Marten Mickos, of Finnish descent, is the CEO of the company, which began in neighboring Sweden. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill spoke with Mickos during the MySQL Users Conference 2005 in Santa Clara, Calif., last week, asking Mickos about topics ranging from MySQL's place in the database market to the volatile issue of software patents.

More at InfoWorld

Red Hat exec criticizes software patents

A Red Hat executive speaking at the MySQL Users Conference 2005 event in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday heaped scorn on the issuance of software patents, saying they stifle innovation.

Panning patents, Tiemann described them as a challenge to enabling massive change.

'Every time a software patent blooms, it's a promise to cease innovation in that space for 20 years,' Tiemann said.

More at Computerworld