Avere joins Pure Storage on patent-reform mission

Fellow storage firm calls for software patents to be axed

Pure Storage's mission to reform the US patent system has gathered speed today as fellow storage firm Avere Systems calls for software patents to be scrapped altogether.

Last week, flash newcomer Pure Storage called on the US government to make sweeping changes to the system of granting patents in the US, claiming the 20-year term stifled innovation among startups.

Pure called on the government to cut the patent term to just five years and to introduce a "use it or lose it" clause to target so-called patent trolls which buy up patents purely to profit from them through legal challenges.

Today, Avere Systems' co-founder and chief technology officer Mike Kazar ramped up the pressure and said software patents in general should be axed.

"I'd go further than the folks at Pure Storage, and say no software patents should be granted, period," he said. "Copyright protection is sufficient to prevent wholesale IP theft, and worked fine through the early 1990s, when pure software patents were first allowed in the US."

He added that if this idea does not come to fruition, then drastically cutting the 20-year term is essential.

"I think the smaller the [patent] term, the better," he said.

He added that the lengthy term often hits the smallest, most innovative tech companies.

"In effect, this locks out smaller companies from innovating in many areas for years, due to these artificial monopolies controlled by the largest companies in a technological area," he said.

"For small startups, filing patents for every technique you use is a very expensive proposition, while it is proportionally less of an expense for larger companies."