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There are still trade secrets all over the place. Patents are an idea that has through evidence been proven to be more harmful than good. The rate of horsepow
by dantheman 8y ago
There are still trade secrets all over the place. Patents are an idea that has through evidence been proven to be more harmful than good. The rate of horsepower in the world exploded once the original steam engine patents expired.
The case for patents needs to be made empirically -- lets see where they actually drove innovation. In general you will see massive innovation as soon as a patent expires.
- foota 8y agoThe issue with your argument is that the alternative might be no one knowing about the idea that would have been patented.
- tofof 8y ago> The rate of horsepower in the world exploded once the original steam engine patents expired. An invention exploding throughout the world upon the expiry of a patent is the primary feature of patents, not evidence that patents are bad. The whole point of patents is that after a brief monopoly period, the entire invention - detailed in the patent to a level sufficient to recreate it from scratch - becomes the public's to use. Your example is evidence of patents successfully driving progress everywhere and working as intended. I'd much rather things protected by trade secrets had been protected by patent instead. If that was the case, for example, I could buy coca-cola for the price of the store brand. But I can't, because the formulas are still secret and not held by the public, even after more than 100 years. The formula being secret serves only to benefit an entrenched multinational corporation and reduce competition - rewarding neither the public nor the original inventor.
- dantheman 8y agoThere are normally many people on the verge of a discovery. The rewards should go to those who are able to effectively leverage their technology into useful products. Not artificially retard progress so that the 'first' person can milk the rewards. Patents have a long history of abuse and very little evidence that they drive innovation. The case has to be made that their benefit outweighs their harm. My argument is that it doesn't.
- mcphage 8y ago> In general you will see massive innovation as soon as a patent expires. As tofof said, that’s absolutely the entire point of the patent system. The original inventor (Watt?) patented his invention. For a period of time, he could use it exclusively. And then the patent expires and everyone gets to use it. Everyone wins.