Xerfas's Journal: In Defense of Software Patents

This article is in response to the editorial "Abandoning Software Patents" by the Ciaran O'Riordan, Director of End Software Patents (posted on PatentlyO on November 6, 2009) which had as its premise that one is trying to protect "software ideas".

I wrote this article from a unique perspective as the holder of the first Software Patent in 1968 and with a long history of involvement in the protection of software thru patenting and copyright protection. I am recognized as a pioneer in the Software Products Industry and had a successful career at Applied Data Research (ADR), the first company to market a software product. ADR and I were also directly involved in the filing of amicus briefs in the Prater & Wei, Benson, Johnson, Flook, and Diehr cases. More background information and links to my memoirs are in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Goetz.

Story: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/11/in-defense-of-software-patents-1.html

A reply to the story: "Defense Of Software Patents Actually Raises Questions About All Computer Patents" link: http://techdirt.com/articles/20091201/1041237150.shtml