Does it take IBM to organize software patent reform? It’s IBM spearheading a move to assist the US PTO and inventors in looking up prior art, using open source methods.

I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that IBM is involved in this, given that they file more patents every year than anybody else. See also the book, Rembrandts in the Attic..

I hope this movement succeeds. It would be nice for software patents to be more useful than they are, which would mean less cluttered with junk that never should have been let in the door.

-jsq