Worse climate with software patents, says small study investigating IT-companies in Sweden

A new master thesis titled "(while) waiting for software patents" (I väntan på mjukvarupatent) from the Economic School at Gothenburg University includes a survey of Swedish IT-companies with regards to software patents.

The results are similar to the larger German study Ifis050404En .

The study is published under a Creative Commons license at: http://www.ffii.se/erik/Patent-Petterson-Sandblom.pdf

45 companies have been asked about software patents:

• - Do you think competition will be better(grow?) or worse with software patents?
  • 62% worse, 12% better, 26% dont know
  - Do you see possibilities with software patents?
  • No 44%, Yes 24%, Dont know 38%
  - Do you run your own software development?
  • Yes 85%, No 15%
  - have you heard about software patents?
  • Yes 91%, No 9%
  - Have you looked into software patents?
  • Yes 26%, No 62%, Dont know 12%
  - ...

The thesis concludes that everyone believes that software patents will come. (???) That uncertainty and lack of knowledge in the market is not good...