[Grut]

A patent on a thing and the way that thing works I can get behind, but software?

A program is a machine, just one that works only in the particular environment of a computer... like a boat works on water and nowhere else.

[NotQuiteCricket]

I just think that patenting software & business processes is something that was cobbled on to the patent laws, and was not thought out well. I thought that patents were intended to protect the original inventor and allow him to make some money off of his work. Now you have someone who will file a patent, and then do nothing with it. Then, a person will independently develop the same thing, and then the patent holder swoops in for the kill (licensing fees). The patent holder had no intention of actually going out on a limb and creating a business (or product) around the patent, they were just smart and saw the way things were going and opportunistically filed a patent on the idea. It just seems wrong.