23 points
*
Software patents usually are shitty like that. And weirdly “state or the art” doesn’t seem to apply to them. Their only purpose is trolling your competition and the consumer is left with fewer and poorer choices and higher prices due to royalty costs.
One of the most infamous examples is Microsoft filing a patent for the mouse double click in 2002, getting it granted in 2004 while the thing was actually developed before the 80s (and not by Microsoft, of course).
I question the usefulness for society of patents in general but software patents especially should be abolished.
