This is a minor variant of my article that appeared in The Hindu on the 8th of April. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/innovation-needs-no-patent-protection/article8447592.ece ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of the public objections to the new Computer Related Invention (CRI) guidelines issued by the patent office, clarifying that only software involving novel hardware is patentable, have come primarily from two groups. The first is a small subset of the legal fraternity , whose primary concern seems to the potential reduction in patent litigation (no patents, no patent litigation). The larger legal community does not seem to share these views. It is puzzling that the legal community is more concerned about innovation in the computer industry than engineers in the industry ! The other group comprises of MNCs selling proprietary software products and perplexed by the f...