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Costs
The costs of patents include:
- Cost of getting patents and maintaining them
- Cost of patent searches to avoid infringement
- Cost of enforcing your patents against others
- Cost of defending yourself against patent litigation
- Cost of the patent system to governments
- Costs passed on to buyers of software
- Software distributors paying Microsoft patent tax
(There should probably be a page to explain how all this is passed on to the buyer.)
Stephan Kinsella on total cost
Stephan Kinsella estimates that the patent system costs US$42 billion in the USA.
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Costs are astronomically disproportionate for SMEs and individuals
- Cost barrier to market entry
- Blocks competing software, reducing choice - which also leads to raised prices
- 2008 State of Software Patents - US$11.26 billion in costs incurred by software patent lawsuits per year
