[zabar]

I think cost is just part of it.

There is also the fact that for lots of things, software are being part of an ecosystem where people come to the same solutions naturally.

Think about the "swipe to unlock", when the only thing you have to interact is a touch screen, it's not like there is lots of different possibilities.

At that point patents become harmfull because it blocks other people from making progress and having competition in a given ecosystem.

Drugs just don't have the same collision of solutions problem.

[lloeki]

> Think about the "swipe to unlock", when the only thing you have to interact is a touch screen, it's not like there is lots of different possibilities.

And this gets even more ridiculous when all you have to do to work around this is swipe inside a circle instead of on a straight line.