Critics of the misguided scope of patents point to scholarly work that arguably supports the abolishment of software patents; Pirate Party UK promises to abolish software patents

Software patents are dangerous and costly to business and the community. Please sign this letter to support abolishing patents on software.

The companies which make up the Linux Foundation are still predominantly supporters of software patents, so they continue to create a pool of such controversial patents rather than abolish them

« Richard Stallman will explain how software patents obstruct software development. Software patents are patents that cover software ideas. They restrict the development of software, so that every design decision brings a risk of getting sued. Patents in other fields restrict factories, but software patents restrict every computer user. Economic research shows that they even retard progress...»

"Last week, the Free Software Foundation announced an important new initiative called End Software Patents whose goals are pretty evident from the project's name. So far, the initiative is backed by the FSF, the Public Patent Foundation, and the Software Freedom Law Center [...] ESP can reach out farther than the FSF alone and build a coalition that can destroy software patents for the good of much more than the free software community..."

Though the LiMo Foundation started off with just six founding members when it was launched in January of last year, the new additions to its membership have swelled its ranks to 32. Included in this newest wave are AMD, FueTrek, Open-Plug, Renesas Technology, Samsung SDS, SoftBank and STMicroelectronics, as well as Access and Orange.

The vague distinction between embedded and non-embedded software leaves room for Microsoft to harm Free software in New Zealand; Microsoft's software patents still pushed into GNU/Linux via Novell

"End Software Patents, a project working toward the elimination of software patents, was launched today. The ESP project will initially focus on two approaches: 1) assisting corporations that choose to challenge software patents in the courts and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the basis that patents for software and designs with no physically innovative step have no legal validity, and 2) public education aimed at passing laws to protect software from patent law. [...] In a separate announcement today, ESP released its first report on the current state of software and business method patents. The report covers the economic impact of software patents, including the $11.4 billion that U.S. businesses waste each year on software patent litigation.

Patent advocates, large successful businesses, and politicians are so enthusiastic about the patenting of software that it’s hard to accept arguments from people like the FFII and Free Software Foundation who claim that the software industry simply does not need software patents and would be far better off without them.