Patent: Whitespace in keywords

[Walter Bright]

Sean Kelly wrote:
> I personally feel that the value of patents has been tarnished so much 
> by the tech industry that the whole thing should just be scrapped and 
> re-invented.  While patents were once a way to protect the independent 
> inventor from big business, they have become a way for businesses to 
> protect their own business model from competition, and more generally, 
> for independent firms to generate money from out of court settlements. 
> Thus they no longer serve to protect innovation but instead stifle it. 
> Some businesses may argue that research budgets would be cut if ideas 
> could not be patented, but I can't remember the last time I heard of a 
> legitimate patent case brought to court.

All software patents should be invalidated. There was no shortage of 
innovation in software before 1990, so software patents are simply not 
necessary.