82 A Patent Lie
Saturday 9th June, 2007
An interesting article from the New York Times which highlights some of the damage that patents are inflicting on the software industry. What's really interesting is how opinions have changed over the past 16 years:
Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, “If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.”
(Emphasis added.)