The last years we saw Microsoft, Apple and others patenting every piece of "doing". Not even do they patent hardware and software, they begin to patent behaviour of users, e.g. the doubleclick although prior art at that time.

This leads Michael Tippach, creator of ASIO4all to the post the following credits on his homepage:

"ASIO is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Everything else on this page, including the numbers 16, 48 and 100 is or may become a trademark of Microsoft, Corp., except for trademarks of their respective owners that are used for product identification purposes only. The rest, as well as the stuff mentioned above that has not yet become a trademark of Microsoft, Corp. is Copyright(c)2003-2015, Michael Tippach. asio4all.com privacy policy"

Be prepared to pay loyalties everytime we close a window with the patented "close button (x)"

Although patenting was needed in the past to let inventors monetarize their inventions, now these silly patents only mean blocking of competitors and, in the end, a standstill of development of new hard-, software and techniques.
This way patents may become a weapon for an economic war by patenting every shit and hindering free exchange of goods and services.
So, what do you think, should patenting be regulated by a supranational authority. Or stop patents at all?

 

For sure some kind of regulation would be most beneficial for a creative future and medical and nutritional health of mankind. It's downright dangerous to allow all kinds of patents, including patenting any genomes of mammals and food. It seems like the patent offices today either don't know what they're doing, or they just don't care as long as patent fees are their main income.
Imagine a farmer who only plants natural, unmodified food, gets "infected" by seeds from neighbor fields, until one day he gets sued for being unable to keep his original genetic line clean and be forced to pay something like license fees because he grows patented and copyrighted material.

As for technology, I doubt that it has really stopped the competition from copying or imitating patented inventions - see what Android has "stolen" from iOS, or what many other software developers have imitated such in 1000 ways.

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2017

I'm of the opinion that patents and copyrights hold back progress generally.

 

I like Michael Tippach.
I like his approach.
I think he has a point.
And I think perhaps not enough people appreciate the contribution he's made.
I've found asio4all to be a singularly useful tool (for years now).

 

we can't say we weren't expecting it
it just sounds ridiculous, the idea of "patenting" a "double click" or "close window with x button"
besides, it's totally useless. people will keep stealing/copying/imitating no matter what

 

Both Microsoft and Apple stole their first home computer designs from Xerox.

I'm glad that piracy exists!