Changing company patent policies
What this entry documents is not a solution.
This practice may be ineffective or useless in the long term.
ESP's position is that abolition of software patents is the only solution.
Replacing patent bonuses
(As discussed by Eben Moglen after the 40th minute in a talk. (http://web.archive.org/web/20111005044748/http://cmdln.evenflow.nl/mp3/cmdln.net_2008-02-20.mp3)
Today, many companies reward their employees for filing patents. The patents don't even have to be good, they just have to be accepted by the patent office. This leads to masses of patents, mostly poor quality, making thickets and uncertainty. If company policy could be changed - as Moglen suggests is already happening in some companies - to give employees this same bonus whenever they modify a product to avoid a competitor's patent, this would reduce patent stockpiling and would reduce patent infringement.
Related pages on ESP Wiki
Other useful policies that companies could implement:
- Publish patent promises
- Use good patent clauses in software licences
- Non-aggression promise to employees
