Z:gnu-www-ja-guardian-article--ca9deb-Since a single piece of softwa/en

Since a single piece of software can embody thousands of ideas together, and those ideas are arbitrary in scope and abstract in nature, writing software will only be worthwhile for those who are rich and have a large software monopoly portfolio: those with the war chest and clout to fight off claims that might otherwise sink a business. In the US, the average cost of defending against an invalid patent claim is $1.5 million. The courts favour the wealthy, so even when a small business gets a few patents, it will find them useless.