To the Editor:

“The Patent, Used as a Sword” (“The iEconomy” series, front page, Oct. 8) makes the valuable point that patents in industries like software can sometimes impede innovation rather than promote it (as they are supposed to do). But in fact, the article doesn’t go far enough.

It argues that software patents may reduce innovation because they are too broad, vague and loose — criticisms that are well taken.

But if these were their only shortcomings, then simply tightening patent standards would solve everything. Unfortunately, the problem is deeper than that.

Specifically, in the software industry, progress is highly sequential: progress is typically made through a large number of small steps, each building on the previous ones. If one of those steps is patentable, then the patent holder can effectively block (or at least slow down) subsequent progress by setting high license fees.