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The one thing I feel people often forget is that the idea of a patent (i.e. a government mechanism for providing an incentive for inventors to share innovations
by thefool 16y ago
The one thing I feel people often forget is that the idea of a patent (i.e. a government mechanism for providing an incentive for inventors to share innovations with the rest of the world) is a good one.
I think that the existing implementation of the idea and where it has lead has numerous problems, but the fact of the matter is that it is beneficial for a society to have mechanisms like patents in place.
The article argues that things would still be done, which is true, but in the case of inventions, the problem is that they wouldn't be shared and companies would probably work hard to obscure any innovations that they did make to make it harder for competitors to copy them.
The argument for getting rid of trademarks is also kinda weak. The end user should be able to easily understand what it is they are buying. You shouldn't have to worry that some sneaky guy is selling cow manure in a box and calling it cheerios.
Beyond that, the point that removing IP restrictions everywhere else would only have a positive effect is something that I tend to agree with.
- kiba 16y agoI think that the existing implementation of the idea and where it has lead has numerous problems, but the fact of the matter is that it is beneficial for a society to have mechanisms like patents in place. It has been a problem for centuries. At what point do we stop experimenting with various schema for patents and realize that is not working? Theories that work on paper but turn out to be wrong in reality are just bad theories and should be rejected.
- thefool 16y agoIt's not just on paper. In my own experience I have gotten a lot of utility out of researching old patents (I do aluminum anodizing as a hobby and found detailed descriptions of stripping solutions in patents). Society needs a system to ensure that innovations are not lost. Abolishing it is in someways similar to the idea of abolishing scientific publications. If you do that, how will breakthroughs be communicated to future generations? Or are you saying that having such a mechanism in place is a bad thing? Just because a problem is hard and a solution hasn't been found doesn't mean that the idea motivating it is flawed.
- yxhuvud 16y agoIt is established as a fact that patents are beneficial for society? Heh, please find me those studies that establish this 'fact' by empirical means[]. You will find a few that says that says that it is a good idea for a company to get a patent if there is such a system, but noone claimed otherwise. [] Empirical since you can get whatever results you want in economics depending on how your model of the world looks like.