What is your view on software patents?

This seems to be an issue that divides people in a big way! I’m solidly on the side of respecting Intellectual Property. Many believe don't respect software patents but in my view that is one of the few ways a small player can protect his/her ideas. Imagine if there were no patents on software/patents. Do you think Microsoft would use a good idea developed by a small software company? You better believe it. There is a ton of road kill (small dead companies with good ideas, no patents) left behind many large companies, not just Microsoft.

The knife cuts both ways. Large companies can get patents and they do in a big way. They also profit in a big way from them. Just look at Texas Instruments and the DLP chip now found in many projection systems – they own that market because they own the intellectual property. I think they should own it – they invested a small fortune into that technology. They only other way to protect an idea is trade secret. In other words don’t disclose the idea no matter what. That’s tough to protect especially in the software world.

If you’ve got great ideas and you want to give them away – that’s your decision. The truly great ideas will definitely be used if people find out. However, if you want to make some money to fund other great ideas then I recommend you protect those ideas – they could be worth a small fortune some day.

Lots of topics here I could cover around patents:
- Open Source
- University IP (stuff developed by professors and students)
- Types of Patents
- Patent "terrorists" (I hate those guys)