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The problem seems to be Kickstarter, in this case, for misleading underfunded people without access to essential resources into believing they could compete wit
by spodek 10y ago
The problem seems to be Kickstarter, in this case, for misleading underfunded people without access to essential resources into believing they could compete with people who have more resources.
Or for people to believe they could post ideas and the world would just wait for them. It doesn't sound like the guy got patent protection for his device.
You could argue that patent protection would promote more innovation, but they introduce other costs that stifle it, like paying lawyers and time to write and file patents.
This doesn't seem a problem with China but a property of capitalism. Just having an idea doesn't guarantee you get the value of it. Ultimately you have to deliver value to someone for them to pay you for it.
- em3rgent0rdr 10y ago> "It doesn't sound like the guy got patent protection for his device." But in China it doesn't matter if you have patent protection or not.
- jstandard 10y agoI don't think a patent would have helped here. Patents take years to be granted (if they are granted), around $7-$10k to file unless you're experienced in writing them, and then you would be attempting to sue internationally against a country which doesn't recognize your patent. Kickstarter might be able to do better with user risk education, I'm not familiar with their onboarding enough to know what they do. In this specific case, I think it's mostly on the entrepreneur to recognize the tradeoffs when using a low cost service in a country where the rule of law is weaker or enforced in ways you don't understand. Sometimes, despite that research, you still get ripped off. What happened, if true, is unfortunate. Hopefully publicized cases like these will lead prototypers to make better decisions.