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There are some interesting optimization methods that probably wouldn't have been made public if it weren't for patents. Which ones? I want all useful algorith

by ssp 17y ago

There are some interesting optimization methods that probably wouldn't have been made public if it weren't for patents. Which ones? I want all useful algorithms to become publically known. Patents help accomplish that. I don't think that's true. If you invent an algorithm that is genuinely novel and you get a competitive advantage from it, patenting it is the last thing you want to do. Keep it a trade secret. Why? Because as a legitimate company you can't enforce the patent. If you try, you'll just be counter-sued for infringing someone else's patents.

fnid2 17y ago
PKZip was one that really moved the compression industry forward. JPEG is another. The current H.264 debate is a sound one and the owners of that patent have even publicly stated that it'll be free to use for the next 5 years or so. Imagine how many better methods may be discovered to compress and stream video than H.264 over the next half decade. That's a lot of time in this industry!
anamax 17y ago
> There are some interesting optimization methods that probably wouldn't have been made public if it weren't for patents. The one that I was thinking of was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkars_algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkars_algorithm . > If you invent an algorithm that is genuinely novel and you get a competitive advantage from it, patenting it is the last thing you want to do. Keep it a trade secret. You're assuming that the competitive advantage from using the algorithm exceeds the value that one can get from licensing. That's not necessarily true. > Because as a legitimate company you can't enforce the patent. If you try, you'll just be counter-sued for infringing someone else's patents. That's not necessarily or always true. Take drugs - the majors don't clone one another - they honor each other's patents.

by ssp 17y ago

fnid2 17y ago

PKZip was one that really moved the compression industry forward. JPEG is another. The current H.264 debate is a sound one and the owners of that patent have even publicly stated that it'll be free to use for the next 5 years or so. Imagine how many better methods may be discovered to compress and stream video than H.264 over the next half decade. That's a lot of time in this industry!

anamax 17y ago

> There are some interesting optimization methods that probably wouldn't have been made public if it weren't for patents. The one that I was thinking of was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkars_algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmarkars_algorithm . > If you invent an algorithm that is genuinely novel and you get a competitive advantage from it, patenting it is the last thing you want to do. Keep it a trade secret. You're assuming that the competitive advantage from using the algorithm exceeds the value that one can get from licensing. That's not necessarily true. > Because as a legitimate company you can't enforce the patent. If you try, you'll just be counter-sued for infringing someone else's patents. That's not necessarily or always true. Take drugs - the majors don't clone one another - they honor each other's patents.