Before I say anything, let me clearly state three things: (a) I am a retired IBM Senior Inventor (b) I speak only for myself and my opinions are not a reflection on any current or former employer (c) my experiences should not be used as an activity gauge for any larger group. My experiences are only my experiences and my opinions are only my opinions – do not infer anything more.

I have defended the purpose of software patents several times over the last month.  Some do not agree with me about the value of patents for the public.  Some contend that patenting harms society by either increasing costs or restricting use of ideas.

Let’s consider the business dynamics of innovation for a moment. Innovation is not a hobby. People expect to be paid. Patents and trade secrets are the only two methods of funding these resources.  An innovator is left to compete only based on manufacturing and marketing if we take away their intellectual property rights. And, consider this, they are not on an even playing ground because they have already put so much into creating the intellectual property.  They are disadvantaged because they have spent their resources developing methods others are getting for free.

Patents give you exclusive use of the technology for 20 years. The creator can license that technology for a fee or protect their exclusive rights to produce a product with that technology. The only thing that society asks is that the inventor teach how their inventions works. So, after their exclusive use time, everyone can freely use their invention.  Society wins and the inventor is paid.  For example, my two granted patents regarding music licensing detection and database security, are protected right now but after the patent expires than anyone can use that technology.

Trade Secrets are another way creators are paid for their innovation. Trade secrets have some advantages. There are no patent or legal fees.  Potentially, the creator can use the invention exclusively forever. However, there are disadvantages. The creator can use exclusive use if there is a security breach and the method becomes common knowledge. There is also the real danger of someone independently developing the same technique. A famous example is Calculus. Both Gottfried Liebniz and Isaac Newton independently developed Calculus. Personally, many times I have had an idea and my research would find another inventor just recently published the same idea. You are not protected against an independent researcher discovering your trade secret.

The disadvantage of trade secrets for society is the potential for lost art. The techniques for Stradivari violins, Roman concrete, Greek fire, and Damascus steel are lost arts because those were trade secrets. In the 90s, I developed a database replication engine called DbDelta which would take any delimited file and efficiently replicate changes from the host to remote sites. My company, Quality Software Solutions, could not afford to apply for a patent so we kept it an unpublished trade secret.  The method I created vanished when I closed the company. I personally saw the disadvantages of trade secrets.

The patenting process also gives windfall advantages to the public. All innovators publish defensive technical bulletins.  These are ideas that are judged not financially feasible for a patent but the company wants to protect its ability to create in that space without fear of someone creating a submarine patent.  Publishing a defensive technical bulletin prevents someone from patenting your method and suing you for using your invention in your own product. IBM published well over 20 defensive technical bulletins describing my inventions.  The public is free to incorporate these ideas without fee. For example, a undergrad engineering student could develop a data modeling system using my idea of an optimal multi-crop agriculture machine learning system as a senior project. The technical bulletin is available and the idea is ready to be developed.