http://www.cio.com.au/article/424871/do_software_patents_stifle_innovation_/ At the recent IP Forum sponsered by Australia's patent office (IP Australia), the organizers well meaningly gave opportunity to an anti patent protagonist named Ben Sturmfels. It was an egalitarian move and quite open minded of IP Australia, but in my mind a bit of a mistake. This congenial open forum was used by Ben for statement making and not any real reasoned interchange. Ben took the arbitrary stance that patents were for the betterment of society and should NOT be used for the protection of inventor rights. In my mind his whole argument fell apart when I asked him the following: "If a person who comes up with a verifiably new way of doing something do you feel that anyone should be allowed to steal that idea and use it as they please?" Time and again, he said "Im not going to answer that as it is not relevant. Patents are not about that." I then asked him