4 ms·

People usually think of incentivizing R&D in general, but patents also help to prevent trade secrets. A trade secret can be kept secret indefinitely and can po

People usually think of incentivizing R&D in general, but patents also help to prevent trade secrets. A trade secret can be kept secret indefinitely and can potentially be lost if the company loses interest or is shut down. Patents help encourage publishing advances in technology so that they eventually advance the public domain. If they weren't interested in that then they probably wouldn't make patents expire.

edoo 7y ago
Patents started out as 7 years and have been extended through lobbying efforts.
- marcthe12 7y ago
  Yep I have no issue with patents but in certain cases even 10 years is to much. Software industry can move fast at times.
bnjms 7y ago
Can you give an example of something today’s scientists and engineers could not reverse engineer or make from scratch given a working implementation? Espionage and industry standard will get at most of it too. I don’t know trade secrets are the problem they used to be. I’ll give you moon rockets and the pyramids.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  DRM software?
  - Filligree 7y ago
    The same software that is regularly reverse-engineered and made useless within six months of release?
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Illegally, unfortunately :/
      - Avamander 7y ago
        Just say you did the research in Estonia. Reverse engineering for the purpose of compatibility with other software is techically always allowed.
mr_toad 7y ago
Software patents are entirely useless if you want to implement what is described in the patent. Even the best intentioned patents are too vague and generalised to be of any use at all. And the patents filed by trolls are a mix of outlandish unworkable misleading claims, and bald-faced gibberish.