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Bioinformatics 2006 22(13):1543-1545; doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btl168
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Theory and reality for software patents: good in concept, not so good in practice

Jonathan D. Wren

Advanced Center for Genome Technology, Department of Botany and Microbiology. The University of Oklahoma 101 David L. Boren Boulevard, Rm 2025, Norman, OK 73019, USA

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Are software patents bad for developers and researchers? The debate has been raging on this topic as more and more software patents are issued and intellectual property staked out, but the answer ultimately is not as simple as a yes or no. Patents arose as a legal mechanism designed to protect ‘intellectual capital’; that is, to protect the ideas of inventors from being used by others without permission and/or compensation. It was recognized early on that if one wished to provide incentive to innovators, that not all inventors had the means to implement, develop or even produce their invention at the time it was conceived. Without some kind of protection, inventors were reluctant to aggressively pursue their ideas, much less share them with others that might prefer stealing the idea to sharing the glory. And, as a general rule, people often scoff at new ideas until someone proves they are . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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