Open Source Paradigm – Beyond the Solution to the Software Patentability Debate

Around 300 B.C., a Greek mathematician — Euclid — discovered a theorem on which modern geometry and a fundamental algorithm is based. The Euclid’s theorem represents a method for calculating the greatest common divisors between two integers. Since 300 B.C., both Euclid’s Theorem and algorithm have been applied in many fields, including algebra and geometry. But, what would have happened if Euclid’s Theorem had been patented? The issue is not whether we can continue to use Euclid’s Theorem without paying royalties, but rather if software and algorithms underlying the software are patentable. Although software is based on algorithms similar to the algorithm discovered by Euclid, in the United States software are generally patented.Open source paradigm — here explored — could resolve the software patentability issue, in addition to represent the best economic/social paradigm to apply in technology industry. Android — Google’s open source operating system — for example, is installed in more than eighty percent of worldwide smartphone showing that open source strategy is workable. The Web developed by Tim Burney-Lee is another of these examples. If the Web had been patented, innovation and the development of technology would have been inevitably compromised. Instead of patent protection, the United States legislator could guarantee through copyright an adequate (and not exaggerate) software legal protection