Patents I was interviewed this morning by NHK, a Japanese radio network, for a special they're doing on business process patents. Here's a summary of what I said. We need competition. With business process patents there will be no competition. Businesses should win based on superior service, performance, and timeliness of their products.
Monopolies are bad for competition, even in mature markets.
To grant legal monopolies in an industry that is in its defining stages, is to kill the industry. Further, as in the music industry, the software industry has too many middlemen. By allowing legal monopolies, lawyers will take over the high tech industry, and product developers, such as Stallman and myself, will find it impossible to create new products without designing them in conjunction with lawyers. This phenomenon can already be seen in the WAP market. Another point, any country that provided a free innovation zone, would attract developer talent from around the world.