Opinion: EFF should call for the elimination of software patents
The group's patent reform ideas are a good start, but don't go far enough. — As recently as 2010, Justice Kennedy seemed unaware that software patents were controversial. — The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has spent years working the problem from inside the system — its 'Most Wanted' list targets specific bad patents, and in August 2010 a jury handed it a win by invalidating one of them (jury invalidates one of EFF's 'Most Wanted' patents). Investor frustration with the patent system was already on the record by mid-2011 (Enough Is Enough).
Against that backdrop, this Ars Technica opinion piece lands as a push from within the critic camp itself: EFF's newly announced reform proposals are called a good start but not enough, and the group is urged to demand outright elimination of software patents. The piece also flags how far the judiciary has to travel — Justice Kennedy seemed unaware as recently as 2010 that software patents were even controversial.
First-order effects
- EFF faces immediate pressure to decide whether its agenda stays at incremental repair — quality screening, targeted challenges — or adopts the abolitionist framing this piece demands, a split that would define its lobbying posture.
- The argument hands sympathetic outlets and developers a sharper talking point than 'reform,' reframing the debate from fixing bad patents to questioning the category itself.
Second-order effects
- Moderate reformers in industry and academia are forced to take a position relative to the abolitionist wing — endorsing elimination risks looking extreme, opposing it cedes the moral high ground to EFF.
- The USPTO and Congress confront a louder constituency arguing the system cannot be patched, raising the political cost of purely procedural fixes.
Third-order effects
- If the abolitionist framing gains traction, the endgame shifts from patent-quality tweaks to a structural question for legislatures and courts: whether software should be patentable subject matter at all — a question the Supreme Court's apparent unfamiliarity with the controversy makes slow to resolve.
The trend: Criticism of software patents is migrating from inside-the-system reform campaigns toward explicit calls for abolishing the category, with EFF as the pressure point.