One of the saddest things to me about software patents is that you don't have to write a single line of code to get one. A friend of mine works for a company that has many hardware and software patents. He had an idea one day (3 actually) talked with the companies lawyers, they found out nobody had patented what he thought of, and pretty soon, the company had three new patents.
He said not a line of code was written for those patents for over 10 years.
One of the saddest things to me about software patents is that you don't have to write a single line of code to get one. A friend of mine works for a company that has many hardware and software patents. He had an idea one day (3 actually) talked with the companies lawyers, they found out nobody had patented what he thought of, and pretty soon, the company had three new patents.
He said not a line of code was written for those patents for over 10 years.