Hacker News Reader

I disagree. If patents are to exist there is no reason software that should be an exception.

Us programmers are essentially arranging blocks. And if you arrange them in a special way you can get your stylus to follow them in amazing ways.

I don’t see why that’s very different than arranging atoms.

At the lowest level, software is always represented physically in the medium. It’s concrete.

View on HN

I think the point is more that the patent office has been too broad with issuing software patents. I'm sure some are reasonable, but many are "obvious to someone skilled in the art" and should not have been issued.

You make an argument for patents not existing then, certainly they should not exist for more than 5 years, you should have exploited your discovery by then and competition is fine.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com