Here is one more painful example of why software patents do not encourage innovation. Microsoft was granted a patent for adding www. and .com to text on a mobile device U.S. Patent No. 7,392,326 for Text Entry in an Electronic Device. The patent has scores of prior art dating back early web browsers. Put a web browser on a laptop and it is a mobile device. The really painful thing about this patent is that it took 7 years to grant! I wonder how many examiners they wore down with this bogus claim. Filed in 2001 and granted in 2008. This still gives MS 13 years of exclusivity on this patent.
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