Pierre Haren
CEO of ILOG

Software is closer to math (non-patentable) than to chemistry (often cited as a success story of the patent system).

The American experience of software patents is a disaster. Before imitating them we should rather try to see if they won't agree to change their system. In order to do that, it will be necessary to lobby the big american corporations.

The European software companies prefer to live with the pressure of having to improve constantly to the pressure of having to apply for patents, attack other companies and live with a constant risk of infringing on other companies' patents.

Free software is an orthogonal problem. One could imagine applying for patents before publishing free software on the Net and thus creating inextricable legal situations.

The argument that the software startups are not able to access capital without patents is a lie. I have never encountered this kind of case.