The scene is early 1942. In the distance air-raid sirens can be heard wailing, the dull thud of explosions far away still rattle the windows of the tiny office. It is desperate times for Britain. Three men sit around the table, hunched over blueprints for a new supercharger, destined to be fitted to the Supermarine Spitfire. They seem to be anxiously waiting for something.

Suddenly a fourth man comes barreling through the door, slip of paper in his hand. He looks distraught.

“Well spill it man!” exclaims one of the fellows at the desk.

The newcomer swallows, then clears his throat. “The… the yanks… we can’t do it.”

One of the men by the desk throws his hands in the air and glares out the window.

Patented

Stanley Hooker rubs his eyes wearily. The air raid sirens have stopped. For now.

“It’s the intercooler isn’t it?” he intones.

“Yes” the man is still standing at the door, as if keeping open an avenue of escape “rea… read this…”

He hands the telegram to Hooker, his hand quivering visibly.

“…describes a method for cooling a charge of air that flows into a machine to ensure…” Hooker stops reading and looks at the other two at the table “THIS DOESNT F*%KING SAY ANYTHING” he thunders. He visibly composes himself, and again directs his attention to the fourth man, now two steps closer to the door.

“Have they actually built one?”

“No. And they have no intention of building one either. They do own the patent though, and they are threatening a lawsuit if we build one and fly it in a plane.”

“We are at BLOODY WAR!” one of the men at the table exclaims. Older than the others, one gets the impression that this isn’t is first war. “Screw the yanks…”

“Well it gets worse.” the man actually takes another step towards the door while passing another paper to Hooker.

“You can’t be serious” a vein can be seen pumping in Stanley Hookers’ neck, right below his left ear “Are you having me on? Look at this!” and he throws the page on to the blueprints. The older man picks it up.

“This patent describes a metho… (mumbles…) compressing air to ensure maximum performance…” he looks across at hooker, and then at the man at the door, who is by now one foot in the corridor. “This describes any of many ways of improving engine performance. Turbo charging, supercharging, what is this!”

The young man steps back into the room, but grabs hold of the handle as if he fully expects the men at the table to throw something at him and he might need the door to protect himself. “The Americans demand we stop flying all planes that infringe on their patents for intercooling, turbocharging and supercharging until we can discuss royalty terms with them. If we fail to comply they will stop the convoys.”

“But the BLOOD GERMANS are using similar designs TOO!” Stanley Hooker can barely contain himself, he designed many of the features that the Americans now patented.

“Uh, yes sir” the man at the door shuffles his feet “but since the yanks are already at war with the Germans they just thumbed their noses at them. The yanks decided to wait until the war is over to deal with German licensing issues…”

Stifling Progress

If you waded through that horrible little sketch of mine, thank you. Back on topic though, I think that neatly describes what software patents mean for the IT industry today. Imagine if every advance in technology gained during WWII was subject to legal wrangling?

Imagine if getting a man to the moon was subject to the US getting permission from the USSR to build a “…method for transporting a human, animal or other cargo from Earth to an area above the Earth atmosphere…”

Dramatic? Possibly, but this is what software patents are doing today. Microsoft – to name one company – wield their many patents against other companies regularly. The end result is that for providing Linux to customers, many companies have to pay Microsoft royalties. Royalties on software that might have a passing resemblance to something Microsoft has done in the past, or possibly not done at all.

Trolling

Patent Trolling is widespread. It essentially means that someone patents a method, or an idea, and waits for a company – or companies – to actually build something that falls in the wide scope of what the actual patent describes. Once a fat enough target infringes on the patent a lawsuit is filed for royalties.

I think a more proper term would be “Patent Trawling,” as in a ship trawling the oceans hoping to catch something in its net. If you are clever, and have questionable work ethic, you can file a patent that almost guarantees someone out there infringes.

Stifling Progress

Now on to the point I was making in the headline. Progress is impaired because of misuse and bad implementation of patents and patent laws. Prior art is not enough – it either doesn’t exist, or the concept is misappropriated. Often only when a case has gone to trial will the matter of prior art be raised. Often millions of dollars will have been spent by this stage in the proceedings. Money that could have been spent researching new technologies. Products could have been so much cheaper, had the royalties and legal fees not been factored into the cost of production and reasearch.

Why it is Important to do Something Now

A few thousand years after inventing writing, man put someone on the moon. The ability to write down our ideas, exchange them with others and then improve on them has been driving progress for thousands of years. Today, with the ease of access to information mankind has the opportunity not only to exchange ideas more rapidly than before, a wider pool of creative minds can be brought together in the space of a few minutes to discuss an idea.

With tools like Twitter, floss.pro, Facebook and blogs like this one ideas can spread and be improved in real time. Collaboration tools can be used to actually work on the fruit of those ideas. Thousands of people can work together on a single design, in real time, today.

We as humans have the capability today to exchange ideas with anyone anywhere with any of a range of expertise. Imagine every mind on this planet being able to give input on what the next Mars rover should look like. If it is a structured and moderated process I can guarantee that not only will the next Mars rover be more efficient, more durable, longer lived and more capable, it will be going to Mars with a whole range of new missions and abilities that scientists have not even thought of.

Imagine

Imagination is powerful. That is what drives human creativity. Imagine if Microsoft would submit their design specifications and ideas to the world for input. I am willing to bet that the user interface will be much more user friendly purely based on feedback.

Now, imagine that they could freely implement any of the ideas that they now have at their disposal without fear of retribution from another company, that Microsoft would be free to design an operating system that would be capable of doing exactly what their end users need and want, without restricting themselves to a narrow path of limited innovation because someone else decided to patent a broad concept that Microsoft might infringe on.

Yet this is exactly what is happening today! Microsoft threatened Canonical with a patent suite based on infringement of over 235 patents. Apple is suing HTC over “multi touch” on their phones. HOW ELSE CAN YOU IMPLEMENT MULTI TOUCH WITHOUT USING MULTIPLE FINGERS?!

The system is broken, abused and beyond repair. Those who are in a position to make a difference seem unwilling to act, indifferent to the injustices that are being done to mankind. The system should be dismantled and destroyed.

Summary

Patents, and especially those that apply to the IT industry, like software patents, are bad for the future of mankind. The very idea that you cannot innovate because your product infringes on someone else’s idea is dumb. If something is not done we will get to a point where either nothing new is invented or made because everything is patented. Progress will be halted.

I submit that fifty, or a hundred years from now “proprietary” will be relegated to history. “Proprietary” is so mired in documentation and patents and royalties that the very broken system that supported it will cause it’s downfall. Open Source will be the new path of innovation. The idea that you can build freely on someone else’s idea and improve it will take hold, and eventually Open Source everything will be the norm. The idea that there are groups out there that are actively stifling growth and innovation – innovation that are saving lives as I type this – to protect their own short-term interest is nauseating.

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