Tim Bray on software patents
Tim Bray works for Google. Bray previously worked for Sun, and is involved with w3c.
Bray has declared himself in favour of abolishing software patents:
Not so many years ago [...] I retained some respect for the notion of patents. [...] But no more. The whole thing is too broken to be fixed. Maybe it worked once, but it doesn’t any more. The patent system needs to be torn down and thrown out.[1]
Bray's comments don't say this position is limited to software, but he's talking in the context of software. So it's unclear if he's just against software patents or if he thinks the whole patent system is rotten.
The previous position which Bray refers to was expressed in October 2004:
the software-patent idea is not inherently broken [...] the net effect of the software-patent system is to serve as a parasitic tax by lawyers on businesspeople[2]
External links
- Giving Up On Patents, February 2010 - abolition is necessary
- Patent Theory, October 2004
- Linux and Patents, August 2004
- Software Patents from the Inside, September 2003 - Bray's experience obtaining software patents (feeling required to do so to please venture capitalists)
- W3C Patent Policy Draft, March 2003
