<i>&quot;To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries&quot;</i><p>Software patents are currently a drag on innovation. The benefits of giving a company a monopoly in exchange for sharing their software &quot;invention&quot; isn&#x27;t a good bargain - especially when their &quot;invention&quot; will be, and has been, independently invented over and over again 99.9% of the time.<p>Patents may be OK for some things but they cause more harm than good in the software field.