Hi,
On 06/26/2010 11:08 AM, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
On Saturday 26 June 2010 09:06:31 steve wrote:
Patents inherently are not *bad*. In fact, they are required in mechanical
related industries to protect and nurture innovation.
there is no proof for this statement - it is just a misapprehension - patents
are bad because they hinder development, and this is true in all fields of
endeavour. In the old old days, one had to employ a lawyer because only
lawyers were allowed to know the law. Nowadays knowledge of law is open - but
strangely enough people still employ lawyers - and there is constant
innovation among lawyers. Imagine a lawyer who finds a loophole in the law,
patenting the use of the loophole and preventing others from using them
without a fee.
A lawyer finding a loophole in the law is probably again an idea (as opposed to
a mechanism). Patents were created to grant protection for time and effort
involved in inventing mechanisms. It is well suited to an /engineering/ environment.
Patents are awarded to the first person to *disclose* an invention, *not* to the
person who would like to keep it secret.
Supposed you are a garage mechanic who spends years developing a new and
efficient carburetor. This is a fairly tedious time consuming and costly affair
for individuals. However, if you invent this new carburetor, you apply for a
patent by *disclosing* the manner in which the carburetor functions so that on
the one hand people understand how your carburetor works and can build on top of
it and on the other hand those big companies who have the resources to can't
just copy the design and mass produce the carburetor on their conveyor belts.
You might also reap the rewards for your invention to continue further
innovation if one of the big companies licenses the use of your patent.
Now, to compare this with software I can't do any better than:
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/basics/index.html
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/basics/whatis.html
In any case, like i said, make your up your own mind on basis of what you makes
most sense only after you've actually thought about it, not just because some
geek god believes happens to think a certain way.
I for one, believe patents in the software and pharmaceutical field do not make
sense. In software, for reasons cited in the link above and in medicine, for
humanitarian reasons. OTOH, I think patents in the mechanical and electrical
industry specifically are, or at least were, useful. If you need proof that
patents actually help inventors, read up on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tesla_patents
cheers,
- steve
--
random spiel: http://lonetwin.net/
what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/
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