Game industry magazine article on software patents

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This month's Game Developer Magazine spots an article by Mr. S. Gregory Boyd on software patents and their conseguences titled "Why Prior Art Matters". The author is involved in several patent litigations and had previously spoken at this year Game Developer Conference on IP protection through copyright.

The article itself is centered on prior art and its value against patents. Provided the accused infringer can stand up the costs of finding the prior art, a patent can be declared invalid. Actually, finding prior art is especially difficult, costly, and time consuming, often calling for industry experts and such rising up the costs of a already expensive process. This search is also prone to fail because of the lack of organization in this field of human knowledge, which has often choosen trade secrets or copyrights as its IP protection mechanism.

It is interesting to see an industry expert from what it is considered to be the leading country in software production and patenting standing this position against patentability. There's obvious evidence even the US software producers greatly suffers from this kind of protection and it's acting to dismantle it by the aforementioned organization of prior art.

Mr. Boyd personally takes a very clear position on the topic: "/Patents are offensive instruments. Contrary to the popular belief, a patent does not give a company the right to sell an invention; instead, a patent prevents others from selling any product or system that falls within the claims of the patented invention. Patent holders often use litigation or the threat of litigation to force competitors to stop selling or, more commonly, to pay for a license fee/".

It is remarkable the given elements perfecly meet what many organizations already said against software patenting. The fact it's on paper press is evidence of a large audience and thus that many enterprises are being hampered by this largely abused kind of IP protection.

Credit to Mr. S. Gregory Boyd, as the author of the original article from which this reading has been inferred.

22nd june 2005