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Mark A. Lemley on software patents

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Mark A. Lemley is a Professor in the USA who has published many papers and articles on patents and software patents.

His articles contain useful information and he highlights interesting problems. They are worth reading, but his suggestions are minimal. For example, in a 2001 paper he suggested that the Doctrine of Equivalents should be interpreted narrowly for software[1] i.e. only a very high similarity of someone's software and someone else's patent should constitute infringement. The problem with this is that software has to be compatible with the other software on someone's computer, and the with the software that the person's co-workers and friends are using. Compatibility requires more than similarity, it requires identical behaviour, so Lemley's suggestion would have no effect on what is probably the biggest problem caused by software patents.

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