Microsoft has accelerated patent application target raised to 3000 a year

On August 1st, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will soon be overwhelmed by Microsoft's patent application report, also just a year ago, Microsoft chairman Bill Gate announced that once again increased patenting pace, scheduled 2000 annual target to 3000. Every week 60 new patent is indeed no small task, it is no wonder that some so-called patent technology patent does not seem to take the edge too, such as "creating telephone recording system and method", "add or delete the document in the blank" etc..

"I didn't see or use the software, but if I had to make a decision, the application would be destroyed. The applications for patent protection, Microsoft may be overdone, perhaps we should occasionally provide some innovative hardware technology patent protection, but related to software products, do not say Microsoft, all the software should not have patent protection."

Holders of the above point of view is really a lot of people, New York, a non-profit public fund executive director Daniel, said, "the abolition of software patent protection is a good thing," said Ravi Cheel". He has always been opposed to patents that "should not have been patented.". Ravi Cheel is a patent law lawyer, he believes that the current patent protection system for the development of software technology has been a great obstacle, at the same time, but the patent owners who get a lot of benefits. This is not the original intention of the framers of the constitution, he said.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament rejected a proposal by the industry known as the "software patent directive," which requires that all EU Member States be removed from the relevant patent restrictions.

All software released in the United States is protected by patent and trademark law. However, the patent protection tentacles stretched too far, and even with the protection of software related ideas can not be involved in other people, and this imprisonment for up to 20 years.

Why Microsoft from the beginning of the new year to accelerate the speed of patent applications?

Microsoft vice president and chief lawyer Brand Smith said, the company through the study found that other IT companies probably every $1 million R & D expenditure share of two patents, so if Microsoft spends $6 billion a year 75 billion dollars for research and development, the application of patent protection is above 3000, and the same to their own.

The explanation sounds reasonable, but it is an interesting contrast. Red hat's chief assistant lawyer Mark Webb said, for a software company, according to the proportion of investment to grab the patent protection practices is absurd, he said, according to the protection of the patent protection law "the current give 20 years has seriously hindered technological innovation".

Restrictions on software patents will provide Microsoft with an opportunity to repair the open source users. Last year, Microsoft global sales group vice president Kevin Jason said in public, if the user intends to move uncertain words in software providers, they should be aware of the risk of intellectual property rights may encounter "". On the one hand, Microsoft reserves a large number of patents and money ready to deal with any patent litigation, while on the other hand, open source software developers have no money, nor have any patents.

If the father of the constitution of the United States, Mr. Jefferson walked into the Microsoft compound, and found that the software is like a pile of software as a pile of shells piled up in Pyramid, he did not think?