There's something in this idea, as I've often toiled over the sharp edges, but it's not all there.
Take one of the article's linked examples, the "Linked List" patent [0], what are the requirements in "producing the thing?" Churn out repositories all day that print random indices of random length, linked list? This idea seems hard to enforce on software patents, which tend to be the most disingenuous, along with most UI, UX, and form/material patents. Do I have my OS create trillions of glossy chat bubbles every day, on a large distributed network, to protect my trivial patent?
Comments
There's something in this idea, as I've often toiled over the sharp edges, but it's not all there.
Take one of the article's linked examples, the "Linked List" patent [0], what are the requirements in "producing the thing?" Churn out repositories all day that print random indices of random length, linked list? This idea seems hard to enforce on software patents, which tend to be the most disingenuous, along with most UI, UX, and form/material patents. Do I have my OS create trillions of glossy chat bubbles every day, on a large distributed network, to protect my trivial patent?
[0] http://www.google.com/patents?id=26aJAAAAEBAJ
In general I suppose they'd have to provide a commercial library that is available to developers to use.
In this particular case the patent office should have laughed and rejected this patent outright, along with the rest of software patents.