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> Human knowledge stand on the giant shoulders of others and patent and copyright with ever-greening and useless litigation are making it hard and difficult. Ca
by WanderPanda 5y ago
> Human knowledge stand on the giant shoulders of others and patent and copyright with ever-greening and useless litigation are making it hard and difficult. Can't fathom someone can copyright a rectangle drawing and sue phone companies for launching rectangle phones.
How is this even an argument, given that patents expire?
- dragonsh 5y agoIt is an argument given there is a concept of ever-greening. Also most of the time Patent system stifles the innovation it was designed to encourage [1] [1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/patent-system-often-stifles-the-innovation-it-was-designed-to-encourage/ar-BB1eExdy https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/patent-system-often-stifle...
- TeMPOraL 5y ago> How is this even an argument, given that patents expire? These days, many patented technologies expire faster than patents on them. In those cases, patents are quite literally halting progress.
- WanderPanda 5y agoWait, are you saying that because technological progress is too fast, technological progress is slow?
- TeMPOraL 5y agoYes. It's because technological progress is fast in general, halting a particular avenue of development down can cause it to never be pursued again. Technological progress isn't a line, it's a graph. Someone patents an invention and decides to sit on it, and by the time the patent expires, the entire technological environment has shifted around in a way which makes that invention worthless, and follow-up work unlikely to happen. Whereas, were it not for that patent, the invention would had people extending it further, perhaps generating even more immediately useful technologies. In this way, a patent - in particular, a defensive patent, taken to prevent anyone from developing a technology that endangers your business - is closing off avenues of progress.