Comments on: It Looks Obvious to Me http://blog.realtors.org/crt/2007/02/17/it-looks-obvious-to-me/ CRT's communications Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:31:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Michael Wurzer http://blog.realtors.org/crt/2007/02/17/it-looks-obvious-to-me/#comment-23640 Michael Wurzer Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:08:41 +0000 http://blog.realtors.org/crt/2007/02/17/it-looks-obvious-to-me/#comment-23640 Excellent post, Mark. As a recovering lawyer trying my best to make an impact in the MLS software business, I'm continually astounded at the patents the PTO is granting. They are understaffed and, with the flurry of applications and prior art, determining the state of the art in the software world is nearly impossible even with appropriate staffing. The PTO needs to engage the larger community to help with the review process. Better yet, Congress could simply remove software from patent protection, leaving protection to trade secret and copyright. The rapid innovation of the last few decades in the open source world shows that Congress does not need to incentivize or protect investments in software with a sledge hammer like patents, particularly now that the term of patent protection has been extended to twenty years. Seriously, what investment in software needs monopoly patent protection for twenty years? Excellent post, Mark. As a recovering lawyer trying my best to make an impact in the MLS software business, I’m continually astounded at the patents the PTO is granting. They are understaffed and, with the flurry of applications and prior art, determining the state of the art in the software world is nearly impossible even with appropriate staffing. The PTO needs to engage the larger community to help with the review process. Better yet, Congress could simply remove software from patent protection, leaving protection to trade secret and copyright. The rapid innovation of the last few decades in the open source world shows that Congress does not need to incentivize or protect investments in software with a sledge hammer like patents, particularly now that the term of patent protection has been extended to twenty years. Seriously, what investment in software needs monopoly patent protection for twenty years?

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