I subscribe to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis publication so I read "The Case Against Patents" when it was published. I agree with Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine on their reasons to abolish software patents. I am neutral on their reasons to abolish all other types of patents because I don't really know enough to evaluate their argument on the other types of patents.
I don't think that Boldrin and Levine's economic reasoning would make much of an impression in a court of law. I submitted an Amicus Curiae to the United States Court of Appeals For The Federal Circuit last Thursday and in that brief I only mentioned two of their reasons in passing when I explained what my interest was in CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation PTY. LTD.
That's a Microsoft phrase, not an open source phrase.
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Steve Stites