Collection Of Quotes

"TEC talks are the current push for software patents. …The bilateral agenda is dictated by multinationals gathered in the Transatlantic Economic Business Dialogue (TABD). When you have a look who is in the Executive Board of the TABD, you find not a single European SME in there" —Benjamin Henrion, PR

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." —Bertrand Russell

'“Other than Bill Gates, I don’t know of any high tech CEO that sits down to review the company’s IP portfolio" —Marshall Phelps

“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today." —Bill Gates

"Our patent system was not designed with an eye to the complexity of today’s inventions – particularly computer and software systems."BSA BSA.org Patents's page

"Today, source code can be protected by copyright provided it, as a work, has sufficient work levels (is not trivial). Based on this, the binary versions derived thereof can also be protected by copyright. PROSA believes that this protection, which covers the primary element in a software product, constitutes an adequate protection." —PROSA, LinuxToday

"Called “patent sharks", they bought dormant agricultural patents and then sued farmers who were unknowingly using protected technology. This brass knuckles tactic outraged rural activists and led to the same calls for sweeping patent reform that we hear now." —Gerard N. Magliocca, Blackberries and Barnyards: Patent Trolls and the Perils of Innovation

"Fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents, any more than swatting mosquitoes will eliminate malaria." —Richard Stallman

"People naively say to me, "If your program is innovative, then won't you get the patent?" This question assumes that one product goes with one patent." —Richard Stallman

"The day that the software sector forms a clear front against software patents, as pharma does for a unitary patent system… will be the day our cause comes close to winning." —Pieter Hintjens, Fosdem07 Interview

"Small enterprises generally adopt a rather negative position towards the current increasing granting of patents for software and algorithms because they fear that these will hamper or eventually even impede their work (more than 85%)." —German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Study of the Innovation Performance of German Software Companies, 2006, p. 86

"If there are two things that don't fit together than it is SMEs and the existing patent system. Considering only the registration numbers, it is clear that SMEs are a 'free-patent zone' and not participating in the patent system. 50% of the registrations are made by only 3% of the registered, a third of registrations come from 0,3%, the so-called frequent registerers." —Dr Flocke, SUEPO: Interview with Dr Flocke

"All computer programs have technical character in so far as they cause physical changes in the hardware." —IBM TBA EPO Decision T 1173/97

"Business methods patents and software patents are the most bogus invention of the legal community. They have no place in patent law." —Maynard G. Krebs, MichaelGeist: Canadian Patent Appeal Board Rules Against Business Method Patents

"BSA members continue to be the targets of patent-related lawsuits and demand letters from entities that make no products and have no intention of engaging in commerce. Our member companies are not the only ones targeted by these entities, and these lawsuits divert funds that would be better used for investment and job creation." —Business Software Alliance, BSA Applauds Senate Committee’s Passage of Patent Reform Bill

"Software patents have been nothing but trouble for innovation. We the software engineers know this, yet we actually have full-blown posters in our break-room showcasing the individual engineers who came up with something we were able to push through the USPTO. Individually, we pretty much all consider the software-patent showcase poster to be a colossal joke." —Kelledin, PLI: State Street Overruled... PERIOD

"Software patents are hindering innovation. Patents should be granted when there is real innovation and real investment in innovation." —Niklas Zennström, CEO, Skype, Silicon.com

"It is not the policy of the EPO to require or examine source codes […]. Moreover, given the length and complexity of source code listings, which can often stretch to hundreds of pages, it would be quite impossible to examine them." —European Patent Office brochure

"Developers need to be able to make and sell software without the threat of patent-related extortion. We must unite both proprietary and Open Source developers - who are equally at risk - to work for this cause, if we're to have a hope of being heard by legislators." —Bruce Perens, Analyzing Microsoft's TomTom Lawsuit

"Small Software companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages. Who is this software patent system for?" —Marco Schulze, Nightlabs Gmbh

"The current “patent thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure to encourage innovation" —Pr Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate in Economics), IP-Watch

"Small enterprises generally adopt a rather negative position towards the current increasing granting of patents for software and algorithms because they fear that these will hamper or eventually even impede their work (more than 85%)." —German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Study of the Innovation Performance of German Software Companies, 2006, p. 86

"My message to the patent world is: Either get back to the doctrines of forces of nature or face the elimination of your system." —Hartmut Pilch, Paraflows 06

"From what I can see looking in from the outside what is going on is the major targets of patent trolls are sick and tired of getting sued by Niro and the other attorneys out there that represent those with patents that are perhaps of questionable integrity, but they really do not seem to have a plan on dealing with the so-called patent troll problem in any meaningful way." —IPWatchDog, Patent Troll Sues Google, Apple & Microsoft

"Plager said he regretted the unintended consequences of the decisions in State Street Bank and AT&T. Those rulings led to a flood of applications for software and business method patents, he noted. If we “rethink the breadth of patentable subject matter,” he said, we should ask whether these categories should be excluded from patent protection." —US. Senior Judge S. Jay Plager, speaking at a symposium at George Mason University

"Let me make my position on the patentability of software clear. I believe that software per se should not be allowed patent protection. […] We take this position because it is the best policy for maintaining a healthy software industry, where innovation can prosper." —Douglas Brotz, Adobe Systems, Inc.

"According to Software Magazine, last year we were the 92nd largest software company in the US. My perspective on software patents is simple: stop issuing software patents. Software patents should not exist." —Jerry Fiddler, Wind River Systems

"IBM is proud of its patent portfolio, and the fact that they produce patents at a rate of 10 a day. With such an extensive arsenal of patents, backed by unlimited legal funds – what chances are left for the VC backed company? This is like the US going to war against Micronesia." —Daniel Cohen, Gemini Israel Funds

"The genesis of this idea was when I was at Microsoft. We had a problem with patent liability. All these people were coming to sue us or demand payment. And Bill (Gates) asked me to think about if there was a solution." —Nathan Myhrvold, WSJ: Transcript: Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures

"They [EPO examiners] claim that the organisation is decentralising and focusing on granting as many patents as possible to gain financially from fees generated." —Expatica, European Patent Office staff on strike

"The Company believes that existing copyright law and available trade secret protections, as opposed to patent law, are better suited to protecting computer software developments." —Oracle Corporation, IBiblio: Oracle Corporation's position paper on software patents

"Software patents harm the industry, with no corresponding benefit" —Adobe, Douglas Brotz, JamessHuggins: Adobe Systems Statement on Software Patents

"[The EPO] can’t distinguish between hardware and software so the patents get issued anyway", —Marshall Phelps, IAM: Microsoft to have 50,000 patents within two years, Phelps reveals

"Technology products typically consist of hundreds or thousands of patented components. It therefore is impossible for technology companies to investigate all of the patents, and pending patent applications that may be relevant to a new invention (product), notwithstanding their best efforts to do so." —Business Software Alliance, Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court in eBay Vs MercExchange

"On behalf of the Comptroller it is also said that it would be difficult for a third party to search for prior art programs. This is for two reasons. Firstly there is simply not a body of suitable literature about computer programs which can be searched. Secondly much of the prior art will consist of actual computer programs and the outsider will generally find it impossible to understand how these work without the source code – which is normally kept confidential." —UKIPO, Bailii: Symbian Limited and Comptroller General of Patents

"I remember clearly in 2005, we spent more money on patent disputes, patent fights then all our technology development put together." —Harold Goddijn, CEO of TomTom