PATO: The Patent And Technology Organisation. Suppose a bunch of big software companies (perhaps led by Oracle, who's already taken the point on this) were to form PATO--Patent And Technology Organisation--and contribute all their current software patents, and all new software patents they were granted as long as they remained a member of PATO, to its ``cross-licensing pool''. May 10th, 1993.

Why does this affect you? Easy. In the end, those with these wide-ranging patents will have increasing control over our lives. Amazon would like to destroy all of its competitors since they can't compete with Amazon's patent portfolio. That means bigger prices and less competition. Other patents have been granted and will be granted, and each restricts your freedom to choose programs from other people.

The United States Patent Office, which normally only hands out patents for unique processes, invented by the patenter and nobody else, that are non-obvious to some level, has apparently admended those requirements in such a way that as soon as you tack the word "Internet" onto a patent application, it's guaranteed to be granted. (One wonders why the USPO took two years to grant the Amazon patent when it was a done deal that they would grant it.) Now you can patent business models, Internet gizmos that a competent high school senior could design in a day and implement in a week, or just patent entire concepts at a shot, like 'affliate programs' or 'one-click shopping'.

Sign up at NoWebPatents.org. I like this better then NoAmazon that Scripting News pointed at because the problem is bigger then just Amazon.

I've been pretty busy these last few days and barely managed to keep on top of the Real World, so I haven't updated, and guess what, a fairly large story hits. Fortunately, it's been quite adequately covered by Scripting News these last few days.

Resuming your normal program...

Patenting computer program techniques aren't like patenting a particular device, they're the equivalent of patenting "The use of a large, sturdy mass, usually metal, for the purpose of driving a metallic shard into a softer understructure by repeated forceful application of the sturdy mass via the use of a force magnification device." In other words, hammers, all of them at a shot. Pneumatic, sledge, magnetic, robotic, impact, even jack with enough creativity and the right lawyers. There aren't many ideas like this available!