Sometimes it actually works in favour of the good guys…
Just occasionally I come across a story that turns my world view upside down. We’ve become accustomed to the horror stories of large corporations using and misusing software patents to swallow up small business and buy out rights to alleged infringing programs.
Australian entrepreneur Ray Richardson’s story is different. ABC’s The Big Deal featured a story on his Uniloc system, which ties a software license to the machine on which it is installed. He later found that Microsoft had taken the idea and used it in a wide range of their products. Had he not filed a patent at the time of inventing the software, he would never have been able to claim infringement.
His story goes to show that not everything is so cut and dried in this world. It’s all very well to campaign for free software – and I’ll continue to do so – but the software patenting system, while heavily flawed (and, I still believe, is not the right way to protect the rights of an inventor), just occasionally serves the purpose for which it was originally intended.