[obtu]

Creativity and innovation have been happening for much of human history. Perceived unfairness that the progress of technology doesn't delineate individual's contributions isn't really something that has held back society.

On the other hand, the patent litigation game is negative sum (it destroys wealth) and mostly enriches lawyers: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1930272 http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/terrible-cost-patents/

In addition to the litigation costs, the prohibition to build incrementally or to reuse or rediscover ideas makes R&D more expensive for lesser results.

So making ideas exclusive has not rewarded R&D and has made society poorer overall, despite rhetoric about incentives, propriety, and fairness.

[mattiask]

I'm not arguing for patents, only that a programming language should probably be patentable if other similar creative efforts are, I don't see why they should be exempt. I agree with you that patents are bad overall (if that's your stance) and should be revamped or abolished.