Software patents and patents on business processes should not be allowed. Period. An idea has no cost and society does not benefit from granting monopolies on ideas.

Note that I am referring specifically to patents, not Copyright. Copyright protects a specific _expression_ of an idea and is an important concept. This is true for both proprietary and open source software.

Also other areas where research is an enormous cost factor (for example medical research) patents are essential to protect the cost of such research (or nobody would do it).

Edit: Spelling