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Source: The History of Software Patents Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation notes that patents are also a threat to small and medium-sized companies that develop or use software. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), a European grouping of over 1, 000 small companies and 60, 000 individuals, is fighting the introduction of software patents into the European Union and has collected an extensive array of resources arguing against software patents. One of the more telling quotations in their resources is attributed to Microsoft 's Bill Gates in 1991: If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.... The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.
Due to its unique nature, FOSS touches on more than just national ICT policy. Particularly in the area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as well as in other areas such as consumer rights and international trade, FOSS can wither or thrive depending on the specifics of the policies implemented. In this section, we look at some of the important non-ICT areas that must be aligned with national FOSS goals. Patents [ edit | edit source] Software and business process patents are particularly dangerous to FOSS for two reasons: FOSS developers rarely patent anything, and paying for patent royalties is impractical with FOSS software. Because of this, software companies threatened by FOSS can utilize software and business process patents to stifle FOSS development. The nature of FOSS development is open and cooperative, with many individuals and organizations involved in the process. These communities rarely file patents for any of the ideas that they produce. Besides disrupting the cooperative nature of FOSS itself, patents are expensive to file.
Doing so would result in almost no software being released as FOSS, since software producers are unable to handle the legal liability involved when the software can be freely distributed to just about anyone and used for any purpose. Such laws are also incompatible with many FOSS licenses. It should be noted that nothing prevents a commercial FOSS company from offering warranties and assuming liability risks on software that they sell. Many companies such as Red Hat, SuSE or Mandrake offer industry standard warranties. However, individual projects or non-commercial community distributions such as Debian cannot do the same. Mandating such a warranty for all would seriously cripple the FOSS community as it would then be impossible for anyone other than large corporations to participate in FOSS development. Footnotes [ edit | edit source] ↑ "How Much Does A Patent Cost? "; available from
Bills. More bills. Everyone's got bills, but it can be a fun change of pace to be the one sending them for once, instead of just paying them. It's an especially sweet update after years of paying those student loan bills from law school. That is, until the novelty wears off. Then sending bills is just another chore that needs to be done around the office. Sick of it? Then you might want to have a look at billing software like the ones in this list. Legal billing software Oh, and because when you're worried about bills the last thing you want is more bills, all of the legal billing software options on this list are either totally free or insanely inexpensive — costing you less than $50 a month, often way less. I've also taken the liberty of ranking the software by cost, because a life spent shopping online has taught me well. Seriously, does anyone not do this? 1. Practice Panther? 5 Stars (from 90+ reviews) Practice Panther, a ridiculously popular (just look at those reviews! ) legal software suite, has the added benefit of being a freemium software.
For now, let's talk about legal billing software. When it comes to legal billing software, you have two choices: you can use standalone versions or rely on the billing tools built into law practice management software. When vetting these products, it's important to ensure that the invoices created by the software are editable, easy to read and can be easily shared with your clients in electronic format. That way you avoid the costly, inefficient and time-consuming process of creating, printing out and mailing paper bills. Another important feature to look for is the ability to customize invoices by including your firm's logo, contact information and more. Some systems will also allow you to include a payment link in the invoice so that your clients can immediately pay you electronically upon receipt of the invoice. This feature will be discussed more fully in the article on electronic payment processing options for law firms. Trust account and accounting features are also important considerations and will be discussed more fully below.
If software patents are allowed within a country's legal system, FOSS adoption may be severely threatened. Software Patents Software patents are a relatively new concept and have been controversial from the very beginning. Software patents are not currently common outside of the United States, though efforts to introduce them are in progress worldwide, usually lobbied for by large multinational corporations. In the United States, software could not be patented until the 1980s. Before this, patents could not be granted on scientific truths or mathematical expressions of it. Patents were granted on processes, machines, articles of manufacture and compositions of matter. Software was considered as mathematical algorithms and not patentable. This changed in 1981 when the US Supreme Court compelled the Patent and Trademark Office to grant a patent on an invention that utilized computer software in Diamond v. Diehr. Since then, software patents have become more and common, with thousands of them being issued in the United States every year.
Clio is crazy-comprehensive, offering ultra-professional looking invoices, document and case management, client statements, account tracking, time tracking, and integrations with both QuickBooks and Xero. "Clio has been a great add-on for our firm for the last several years. We are relying on it more and more each month. I usually have Clio pulled up in 3 distinct windows at a time to facilitate instant navigation. As it updates upon refresh, and instantly within its window, it has been a great way to multitask across client issues such as scheduling, time entries, and specific tasks. We primarily use Clio as a task manager and billing, but there are many other functions that we have not utilized but are looking forward to. We will be sticking with Clio. " "Our firm just started using the software, but already my days have shortened from all the integrations. I've also found a ton of time that I didn't know I wasn't billing! The platform is not the most intuitive to use at this point, but the customer service is SUPER responsive, has workarounds, and is great at submitting (and delivering on) feature requests.