Petition abolish harmful software patents

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We, the voters who believe that software patents will stifle innovation in the software industry and restrict computer and phone users unfairly.

Due to the incremental nature of software development, patents covering software techniques are an obstacle to progress in software. Programmers, in the course of doing their job, search for solutions to the problem at hand and are only impeded by software patents which threaten them or their employers with litigation. The ultimate impact of software patents is to slow innovation, rather than to promote it and therefore contradicts the stated purpose of the patent laws.

Patents in most fields in practice usually affect only factories, patents that apply to software tie the hands of every computer user. Only a tremendous public benefit could justify this imposition, but the actual effect of software patents is harmful.

we call for a law to abolish software implementations running on general hardware from the coverage of any patent.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

6 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 6 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 17 August 2012
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