Well, it depends. If I had a truly great idea and also had interest in forming a cell phone company, why would I settle for just selling the idea (and why would I attempt to sell it if during the negotiations, the idea could be stolen at any time with no protection for me?) when I could be making millions selling a phone with my great software innovation?
The point is, if there's absolutely no legal protection on ideas, ideas are worthless. People use the argument that math is universal and doesn't deserve protection, but the reality is that math is hard. If you come up with a math solution that is really clever, I feel you should be entitled to some kind of protection on it. What is hardware but applied math? Does programming not take man-hours of research and development? Does every line of code paid for make it to market? If we're arguing that R&D costs are what make sense for patents (like the pharma arguments I hear) then maybe you should have to show an itemized bill for your R&D and patent length could be adjusted so it's yours until you recoup that investment.
We trash on Edison for stealing ideas and beating the inventor to the PTO. The same thing could happen in software. The solution I see to this is making sure the original inventor has a reasonable time frame to capitalize on the idea before it becomes a free-for-all. By that point, the market has had a chance to speak and recognize your innovation. What we can all agree on is that patents shouldn't be a lifetime income source based on lawsuits.
The point is, if there's absolutely no legal protection on ideas, ideas are worthless. People use the argument that math is universal and doesn't deserve protection, but the reality is that math is hard. If you come up with a math solution that is really clever, I feel you should be entitled to some kind of protection on it. What is hardware but applied math? Does programming not take man-hours of research and development? Does every line of code paid for make it to market? If we're arguing that R&D costs are what make sense for patents (like the pharma arguments I hear) then maybe you should have to show an itemized bill for your R&D and patent length could be adjusted so it's yours until you recoup that investment.
We trash on Edison for stealing ideas and beating the inventor to the PTO. The same thing could happen in software. The solution I see to this is making sure the original inventor has a reasonable time frame to capitalize on the idea before it becomes a free-for-all. By that point, the market has had a chance to speak and recognize your innovation. What we can all agree on is that patents shouldn't be a lifetime income source based on lawsuits.