[ Thanks to Linux User &
Developer magazine for this link. ]
“In theory, patents are granted only after strenuous tests of
originality and appropriateness have been met, and should only be
conferred on inventions that are entirely original, are not
obvious, and have the potential to radically transform the way
things are done. In practice, the bar has been lowered to allow a
proliferation of trivial and contestable patents, especially, but
not only, in the area of software and business method patents.“Patents, copyrights, and trademarks are lumped together under
the misleading term ‘Intellectual Property’ which, in the words of
Richard Stallman, ‘is at best a catch-all to lump together
disparate laws’ under the umbrella of an ‘analogy with property
rights for physical objects”, which is ‘at odds with the legal
philosophies of copyright law, of patent law, and of trademark
law… These laws are in fact not much like physical property law,
but use of this term leads legislators to change them to be more
so.'”