3 ms·

Can we stop pretending like patents are a good idea? As long as they exist, they'll need to be "fixed".

• rayiner 15y ago
  [Citation needed]. EDIT: Computer folks tend to see the world through a particular set of glasses. They see a world of inventors in their basement you can invent with little capital investment. That's fine and is great for innovation, but the whole world doesn't look like that. If you're in an industry where the process of invention is extremely costly, patents can often be the only way for smaller entities to participate. Say you have an idea for a new radio technology. It'll cost you millions of dollars to build a prototype (the associated parts and equipment are very expensive). And once you have it --- what do you do with it? Go into production and compete with AT&T and Verizon? Patents allow meaningful seperation of invention from productization, and that's something that hugely benefits smaller entities.