Again, there is not much overwhelming empirical evidence that software &#x2F; tech are harmed by patents. Studies attempting to prove this have been sorely lacking. However, there was a recent study that showed that patents can be a slight drag on fields characterized by a large number of very small, incremental improvements, which can characterize a lot of software innovations. I cannot find it right now, but this was the first paper I found that actually tries to quantify the costs of patents to industries like ours.<p>On the other hand, there are multiple other studies showing how having a patent increases the chances of tech startups of a) receiving VC funding and b) making successful exits. I&#x27;d say it&#x27;s still not clear that the software industry is being harmed more by patents than it is being benefited.