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If the new welding method is developed enough to patent, but possibly not enough to mass produce new welding equipment, then it will require an investment from
by tgb 11y ago
If the new welding method is developed enough to patent, but possibly not enough to mass produce new welding equipment, then it will require an investment from someone to get it into use outside the laboratory. Being able to license them a patent provides a greater incentive to make that investment. It's possible for an idea to be simultaneously an improvement, cheap in the long run, and also require an up-front investment that might never be made back without a guarantee of monopoly.
I can't judge how frequently this occurs, but it seems reasonable.
- mindcrime 10y agoBeing able to license them a patent provides a greater incentive to make that investment. In theory. But that's not the only way things can play out. It's just as likely that if such an innovation is offered freely to everyone, that everyone will feel compelled to adopt it, exactly because of the fear that their competitors will. And nobody wants to get left behind. Given that it's basically impossible to know how a given scenario will play out ahead of time, I don't buy this whole "grant patents on government sponsored developments and then sell them" based on some hypothetical scenario that lacks any real justification.