8 ms·
> Patents increase the sharing of information Do you know of anyone who has had a software development problem, searched a patent database, found a solution in
by DougBTX 10y ago
> Patents increase the sharing of information
Do you know of anyone who has had a software development problem, searched a patent database, found a solution in the database, then implemented that solution? I know that I never have, if people actually do that I'd be interested to know what sort of problems they are working on.
- rtpg 10y agoNot for software, but I have looked at patents for physical machines to try to figure out how to do something well (card shuffling machines).
- raverbashing 10y agoThey don't search a patent database to build their own, but license a pre-existing (patented) solution. You don't look at mp3s patents to build your own awkward version of a sound compression algorithm, you just use mp3
- Dylan16807 10y agoIf you'd rather license than build your own, copyright covers that fine. Patents only come into play when you are building your own. And compression is really close to pure math to start with.