The patent debate continues to rage on within the software and Internet industries.

My position on software patents is very clear: I'm against them.

I have no patents myself. A search for "Mohsen Banan" yields a number of patents belonging to Mohsen Banan, but that's not me—that's a different Mohsen Banan, specializing in Applied Physics.

The current patent model is rooted in the historical conventions and institutions of material products and materially-based services. Software patents, along with other Intellectual Property ownership contrivances such as copyright and trade secrecy, represent an application of the principles of physical property ownership into the realm of non-physical constructs, where they do not properly apply.

The inherent nature of software and other non-material constructs is fundamentally at odds with the historical notions of physical property ownership. Such constructs have the inherent potential for unlimited replicability and dissemination, and in the age of the Internet this potential is now fully realized.

The current western orthodoxy of ownership of non-material constructs via patents represents a misdirection and misuse of the idea of property, given full legal authority via the legal instruments of patent and copyright. This misapplication of ownership may very well prove to be as immoral and costly, in its own way, as another unnatural and immoral form of ownership, in its own time also given legal authority: that of slavery.

Even apart from the fundamental misguidedness of software patents, patents are now being routinely granted for software constructs that do not even satisfy the basic patentability requirements of novelty and non-obviousness. Patent law as it exists and functions today is hopelessly dysfunctional, acting directly against the interests of society. It serves to enrich a small minority of powerful business interests, at the expense of the software industry as a whole, small businesses, and ultimately the public at large.

It also serves to undermine the integrity of the engineering profession. My profession.

As a professional engineer, I am committed to protecting the integrity of my profession, as well as the principles of openness and freedom within the software industry, and I have consistently acted upon these principles. In particular:

• In March 2000 I founded the Free Protocols Foundation, an independent public forum dedicated to the promotion and support of patent-free protocols and software.

• I have made patent-free declarations for RFC-2188 and RFC-2524, two Internet protocols for which I am the principal author, through the Free Protocols Foundation.

• I have written various articles exposing the harm of software and protocol patents, and in active opposition to specific patents. These include:

  • The WAP Trap and WAP: The Patent Problem. These two papers were written in opposition to the insidiously patented Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

  • A series of articles relating to the ongoing RIM (Research in Motion) patent fiasco. These include FPF Position Statement—July 31, 2001, the follow up article FPF Position Statement—September 12, 2002, and the highly influential industry paper Operation WhiteBerry. When the tables were turned and NTP and Visto asserted their own patents against RIM, we once again took the side of the parties defending against patent assertions.

More recently I have participated in several other legal cases involving the defense against patent assertion.

Patent Assassination

I provide consulting services for defending against patent assertion claims in the areas of wireless, email, telecommunications and data communications. These services include prior art determination, and expert witness testimony.

My services are available only in the defense against patent assertion. I do not accept any work in support of patent assertion.

I am generally available and interested in participating in patent litigation cases that can benefit from my "patent assassination" expertise. If you have or know of appropriate cases please contact me, or refer others to me directly.

Thank you!