SOFTWARE PATENT DEBATE

Software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of public policy. Policy debate on software patents has been active for years.[1] The opponents to software patents have gained higher visibility with lower resources through the years than their pro-patent opponents.[2]
Arguments and critiques have been focused mostly on the economic conse A patent must publicly disclose the invention and so educate the public and advance the state of the art of the invention. Thus patents accelerate software development by making previously unknown and not obvious software inventions public. Patents must disclose how to make and use an invention in sufficient detail so that other persons of ordinary skill in the art of the invention can make and use the invention without undue experimentation.[5]
Furthermore, patents are only valid if the inventions they disclose were not known by the public prior to the filing of the patent application, or if the inventions were not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art at the time the patent application was filed. (US laws are somewhat different from other countries. In the U.S. the focus is on when the invention was made, not when the patent application was filed). This is the formal law, and a rule that if violated could lead to invalidation of a patent, so is followed strictly by patent lawyers.[6]The time delay between when a software patent application is filed, and when it becomes public is 18 months.[7] This is a compromise position allowing U.S. innovators to develop their software before revealing details about it and giving competitors an unfair look at their research and development, and providing the public notice within a fair amount of time to allow others to develop their own technology. The format in which software inventions are disclosed in patents (plain language text, flow charts, line drawings, etc.) allows a person with reasonable programing skills to recreate software capable of performing the ideas patented, as required by law. Copyleft publications by contrast, provide a different type of information addressing a different legal standard with different incentives.