This paper is an empirical study of Edmund Kitch's patent prospect theory, based on an evaluation of antispam patents. The paper is thus a contribution to the wider debates about the benefits and costs of patents in general, and of software patents in particular. The antispam patent prospect has...

The legal, economic, and technical literatures are replete with discussions on the desirability or otherwise of software patents. But each strand of this debate has some limitations. The legal literature is for the most part based on case law, and thus is difficult to generalize. The economic...