But then when I come up with a good idea that I want to use in FOSS, I still have to keep it secret for days/weeks until it gets though a "patent-mining process" at whatever company I happen to be working for at the time.
There are a lot of costs associated with just having software patents at all, no matter what the duration. Can you demonstrate why we need patents in software so much that it justifies these costs, despite the fact that in practice, we did fine without them for 20 years?
There are a lot of costs associated with just having software patents at all, no matter what the duration. Can you demonstrate why we need patents in software so much that it justifies these costs, despite the fact that in practice, we did fine without them for 20 years?