Judge Richard Posner, last seen dismissing an Apple-Motorola patent dispute with prejudice, has added some more thoughts to the current state of the patent system through an interview with Reuters’s Dan
Levine. Among other things, Posner questions whether the tech industry
even needs software patents at all in order to thrive. According to
Levine, Posner thinks that tech companies don’t have as strong a claim as other industries to having patents
since “advances in software and other industries cost much less” than,
say, research and development for pharmaceuticals. What’s more, Posner
believes tech companies that are first to market with important new
innovations will get richly rewarded for their work even if other
companies work to copy them shortly after. Finally, Posner contends that
there are so many components to smartphone technology that having each individual feature such as a slide-to-unlock system patented simply clogs the courts with endless litigation
that doesn’t benefit consumers or the industry. “It’s not clear that we
really need patents in most industries,” Judge Posner said.
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