"It is all too easy to look back with 18.5 years of hindsight, and knowledge of how the market has evolved, and say ``of course this is how everyone is going to do it'' or ``the patents are too broad.''"
...Lodsys are actually putting forward an effective argument against long-lived software patents. It didn't become obvious because of the disclosure of the "invention" in this patent - it became independently obvious through the progression of the start of the art. 20+ year patents certainly shouldn't be granted on "inventions" that would have become obvious anyway within a fraction of that time.
"It is all too easy to look back with 18.5 years of hindsight, and knowledge of how the market has evolved, and say ``of course this is how everyone is going to do it'' or ``the patents are too broad.''"
...Lodsys are actually putting forward an effective argument against long-lived software patents. It didn't become obvious because of the disclosure of the "invention" in this patent - it became independently obvious through the progression of the start of the art. 20+ year patents certainly shouldn't be granted on "inventions" that would have become obvious anyway within a fraction of that time.