3 ms·
the government encourages people to not duplicate effort, the purpose of patents is to encourage people to disclose an invention so that other people don't rein
by cloudjacker 10y ago
the government encourages people to not duplicate effort, the purpose of patents is to encourage people to disclose an invention so that other people don't reinvent the wheel, the incentive being that you get a monopoly on the wheel for a limited time
software of course iterates much faster than other inventions, meaning a 19 year monopoly can really stifle the industry
thats the only debate on patents, software applicability