FEATURE ARTICLE - Is there a future for open source software in a patented world?

By Mellanie Bauslaugh

I recently saw “The Corporation” – a Canadian-made documentary film about the nature of the  corporation and its place in our world. One of the many topics that this excellent film touches on is the subject of patents and what (or who) should be off-limits when it comes to ownership.

This is a hot topic right now in the software world, which made me think – is the era of open source software coming to an end because of “patents gone mad?”

The dictionary defines a patent as “a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time; an exclusive right or title.”

The biggest problem with this definition, where software is concerned, is that some of the software patents that are being accepted are not necessarily inventions and their definitions are too  broad.  This means that developers  can't be certain that they are safe from patent infringement suits in the future on projects they are developing today.

“We're looking at a future where only the very largest companies will be able to implement software, and it will technically be illegal for other people to do so, ”  says open source advocate Bruce Perens. “You have to consider engineers today spend their entire careers combining other people's intellectual property. And every small and medium sized enterprise is at risk regarding software patenting. That is a problem in Europe, because representatives to the European Parliament are pushing very hard for software patenting that would indeed shut out all small and medium businesses from the software development business, not just open source.”

It's already happening. A search of the US Patent Database reveals that  Amazon.com holds patents for things like “a secure method and system for communicating a list of credit card numbers over a non-secure network” (#5,715,399) and a “method and apparatus for producing sequenced queries” (#5,999,924).

It’s surprising what corporations own and hard to believe if you ask me.  And if you think that is scary, try searching for patents on cancer or human genes.

All of this patent talk makes me wonder if there is room for innovation and creative freedom in our future – are we facing a time where everything will one day be owned by a corporation?

Let us know what you think about patents and the future of open source software.

For more information:
The Candian Patents Database
The United States Patents Database
The UK Patents Office
The Corporation
A funny list of absurd patents

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