How are software patents harmful to innovation?
user
Big companies can develop some new software and then patent it. This new piece of innovation then becomes unavailable for all other software developers. Other tech companies now have to spend a lot of time and effort to replicate the same technology with slight differences. This is costly and won't be worth it since the patent holder could make small improvements in the same timeframe and remain ahead. In other words, being the first to develop some new software and geting the patent guarantees a temporary lead. 

This has a multitude of effects, not all of which are negative. The power of these patents incentivizes companies to develop new software. On the other hand, software is such a diverse field that the dominance of a few mega-corporations like Facebook, Google and Microsoft may actually be detrimental. Also, there is the problem of proprietary software giving people no choice but to accept inapropriate usage of the technology which they use. An example could be the domiance of facebook, the way in which they use their users's data and the federal lawsuit against the company on these grounds. In short, software patents harm innovation because they enable the rise of corporate monopolies. 

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assistant
How are software patents harmful to humankind?
user
Software patents are not harmful to humankind, it only protect the copyright of the company.

One good thing is to prevent a lot of not saving copies of the product without any guarantee, which may lead to a loss of money or resources.

Some companies want to protect their investment in order to have profit.
Other organizations can share their product.

Is the freedom of choosing what's matter

However there are cases where a company wants to monopolize a market by patenting technologies that can be used for new companies to thrive.
assistant