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On Sunday 09 May 2004 10:39 pm, you wrote:
> On Sun, May 09, 2004 at 10:53:48AM -0400, Ken Elliott wrote:
> > That's the good news. Here's the bad news...
> >
> > http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984052.html
>
> This is one of the reasons patents only last a limited time, unlike
> copyrights. (Well, copyright lifetime is limited as well, but _much_
> longer.) If companies could lock down patents for decades, they would
> effectively have monopoly status for that amount of time. Unfortunately,
> the 17 years or so that patents last is many generations in computer
> technology time.
>
> Paul
It would make sense to me to extend a software patent for perhaps 3 years, 5
if renewal is unopposed (unlikely if the idea was worth anything to start
with). That was the approximate lifetime of software prior to patents.
Bill
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