Another Simple Way to End the Patent Threat: Monetary Punishment and Rewards

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]

"This isn't a problem for the big guys with the big fat bankrolls, but it's bad for the little guy. For those too lazy to look at the link, the list essentially creates a picture of how badly you get nickeled and dimed to death every time you file a patent.

"Interestingly enough, this can be used to the advantage of FOSS and Linux lovers the world over. It's also one of the biggest reasons why the current patent system won't change anytime soon. The USPTO may seem like an organization that's here to help commerce, but in reality, it's there to help the government get richer. If you look at how many patent applications are filed every year, then compute the billions collected in fees by the USPTO, you quickly get a picture of why the system is so bad and getting worse as time goes on."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• RMS and His Magic Bread(May 26, 2009)
• The elusive, royalty-free patent licence for Mono(May 26, 2009)
• Overunderdoing: patterns in Microsoft's interoperability stance(May 22, 2009)
• Microsoft Patent: More Money for Less Functions(May 22, 2009)
• Microsoft now all about cooperation? Yes, thanks to patents(May 20, 2009)
• Microsoft, Linux Foundation issue joint letter opposing proposed software-licensing principles(May 18, 2009)
• Red Hat answers us all on patents(May 05, 2009)
• Microsoft's TomTom patents posted for patent review(Apr 28, 2009)