Software patents present the biggest single threat to free and unencumbered software development today. A brief summary of some of the negative effects of software patents are as follows:

• It will be increasingly difficult to write and release software that does not infringe on a patent.
  This is because a fully working software application contains thousands of parts, anyone of which could infringe on a patent. Patent searches are costly both in terms of money and time, which few individuals and companies can afford. Only those with large patent portfolios will be able to continue more or less unimpeded.

• Freely available software will no longer be widely available
  This is because no one who develops software for the benefit of the software community wishes to run the risk of legal action against them for using (either knowingly or not) patented technology. Free software is very useful for businesses because it often provides them with useful technologies that they can incorporate into their products. For example - the JPEG file format. This benefits everybody as companies get lower development costs and their customers get more features in their software than would otherwise be possible without a hefty increase in the price of the software.

• The price of software will rise
  This will be inevitable as the legal costs, such as court costs, commercial patent searches and patent licence renewal fees are passed onto the consumers in order for businesses to maintain healthy profit margins.

• There will be less innovation
  At first this does not seem obvious as you might assume that people would be creative to 'get round' patents and use alternative technologies. However, many programmers will shy away from implementing variations on an idea to avoid the possibility of legal action. (Court costs are huge, few individuals can afford them) Less innovation will mean less choice for consumers as well.

• Source code will no longer be made freely available
  In many countries, you need to prove infringement of a patent before you can take legal action. Since source code often holds all the information necessary to determine this companies will not release the source code. Why is this important ? What would you do if you wanted to change operating systems (lets say the one you are using is obsolete) and the company who supplied your software went out of business about a year ago ? Without the source code, you would be unable to figure out file formats or data structures (to convert your valuable data with) without a lot of effort and expense.

• Education will suffer
  Because of the reduction of available free software (and source code) which have been available ever since computers were first introduced, there will be fewer 'A' grade programmers coming into the industry to maintain the high standards we have now. How come ? Because educational establishments such as schools, collages and universities who often do not have the vast resources of large companies will not have the tools to teach the latest skills and technologies to students. They simply will not be able to afford them. Those lucky few that can will be able to leap ahead technically - purely because the legal system allows them to.

• Unfair Trading Conditions - No level playing field
  Certain large software companies actively patent as much as they can. They typically hold over 5,000 software patents. A small company, consisting of five to ten people may only have the resources to patent 20 'inventions' a year. This clearly gives the larger companies an unfair advantage in the marketplace with smaller companies being far more likely to infringe on a patent than the other way round. (Incidentally, for those that understand these things, this goes against the objectives of the TRIPS agreement - articles 7 & 8 - if Im not mistaken).