cjs@po.CWRU.Edu (Christopher J. Seline) (02/01/91)
I don't agree with patenting software; however, it does have tax advantages? WHAT? YES! A patent lasts for only 17 (or was it 18) years. Thus it has a fixed life. R&D costs on something that has a fixed life can be amortized over the fixed life of the product. So, if my R&D on the some program is $17M and it has a 17 year life cause I got at patent and it makes a profit (before R&D costs) of $1.2M per year THEN I can subtract $1M per year of the (before R&D) profits as R&D costs thus lowering my taxable income. THIS IS NOT A LEGAL OPPINION YOUR MILAGE MAY VARY ALWAY ASK A LAWYER ALWAYS ASK A LAWYER FLAMES TO /dev/null