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You are assuming that the patent system as it stands rewards people who have ideas (more than the alternative of having no patents at all would). I think there
by igorhvr 15y ago
You are assuming that the patent system as it stands rewards people who have ideas (more than the alternative of having no patents at all would).
I think there is a good chance that this is not true at all.
Some possibilities:
Maybe the system rewards people with the best lawyers? Perhaps the system rewards people who are more worried at shooting the other runners instead of running as fast as he possibly can? It could also be that it rewards large companies (since worrying about patents is mostly outside the radar of small companies), making good people want to join them?
Ideas will not ever become worthless, if only because often it takes a certain mindset to extract value out of them.
- DanielBMarkham 15y agoYou are assuming that the patent system as it stands rewards people who have ideas Sorry, I should have been clearer: I am describing the purpose of the patent system, not the current application of the patent system. As I said, the actual application of the patent system is horribly broken. My question was whether or not the underlying assumptions that created the patent system in the first place will still be valid or not once everything becomes bits.
- bd_at_rivenhill 15y agoMaybe the system rewards people with the best lawyers? Close, but I think that the correct answer is that the system rewards the lawyers themselves.