Eugenia at OSNews.com has a great editorial talking  about software patents and more specifically, talking about Apple's latest patent.

At first glance, Apple is patenting transparent windows. Luckily for Apple, Stardock doesn't do software patents since the first OS to have transparent windows when dragging them (for example) was WindowFX on Windows.

But that's not what Apple is patenting and a lot of people have gotten up in arms needlessly.  In reality, Apple is patenting using transparency to visually cue the user that a window hasn't been used in awhile.

But Eugenia's point is that large companies are starting to really abuse the patent system in ways that could really stifle innovation as we go into the future. That's because the patent office is regularly quite clueless in what patents it grants.

And if you're a small company, forget it. Patents can be useless. That's one reason Stardock doesn't bother with patents. Luckily for Microsoft, for example, the way WindowBlinds skins the Windows GUI wasn't patented or XP would have had to either license the patent or find another way (like the method eFX used to skin which was totally different).  Small companies can't realistically make use of software patents because they rarely can afford the litigation to enforce their rights.

And so the net result is that large companies end up having a ridiculous number of patents.

As Eugenia points out - the US is shooting its own industry in the foot by having such a lax patent system.

Read her article at the link below.