I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really, really don’t like software patents. The patent system as it regards software is hopelessly broken. It seems obvious that software patents should be abolished. Check this out for an elegant summation of why.
I’ve got a lot of company in this opinion including some very powerful folks in the software world, not to mention the rank and file. Even congress—who are working to pass some form of patent reform—seem dimly aware of some of the issues. Unfortunately, the bills being considered miss the fundamental problem. As long as software patents in their current form still exist, innovation in this country, not to mention “the little guy”—independent software developers—will continue to be held hostage to the behemoth, entrenched software and hardware giants and even scummier Non-Practicing Entities a.k.a patent trolls. If it was just one multibillion dollar company bludgeoning some other multibillion dollar company with their patent portfolio as they’ve been doing ever more frequently, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. But when indie software developers who write unique and valuable software are being shaken down by well financed patent trolls who have designed and built nothing but an expensive patent portfolio, I know that something is just plain wrong.
My hope is that recent news that Yahoo is suing Facebook for patent infringement may mark a turning point. Why so? Isn’t this just another “multibillion dollar company bludgeoning some other multibillion dollar company with their patent portfolio?” Well, it is that, but I’m hoping this is different.
Up until now, we’ve seen the various patent battles unfold in the mobile space. It’s likely that if you don’t follow the industry, you’re not even aware of it. And even if you are, it’s hard to imagine how Samsung settling with Apple, or vice-versa is going to impact your day-to-day life. Maybe you pay a few bucks more for your iPhone or Android phone.
But it seems that given the nature of the patents that Yahoo is asserting Facebook is infringing, it represents a real threat to the very existence of Facebook as a company. I’m not a lawyer or any kind of expert in patent law, but my understanding is that among the 10 patents in question are patents on the very idea of a social network like Facebook’s. Perhaps Yahoo’s patents won’t pass muster in a court. But it seems that with software patents as ridiculously broad and ambiguous as they tend to be, there’s a fighting chance that Yahoo could win such a claim. I’m hoping to dig into this a little deeper to see whether these possibilities are realistic, but from where I sit, it seems possible.
Facebook is a software platform used by more people around the world (and certainly in this country) than any other single software platform there is. At the very least, for this reason, this is a vastly higher profile lawsuit than any we’ve seen until now. With that kind of national, mainstream spotlight on this case, I’m hoping that the spotlight is shining equally on the absurdity of the system that’s enabling this to happen in the first place. We saw how it was public attention that killed SOPA and it’s kind. Perhaps the same kind of public attention might motivate lawmakers—or perhaps the judiciary, depending upon how this case unfolds—to give serious consideration to the overall validity of software patents.
All of this is just much more likely if Facebook decides to fight rather than settle. And the noisier the fight, the better.