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That’s legitimate, but I have two questions in response: 1, How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? (As I’ve been told by my lawyer)

by pfraze 5y ago

That’s legitimate, but I have two questions in response: 1, How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? (As I’ve been told by my lawyer) They cost tens of thousands to file and much more to enforce. It seems way more likely that a rich company will railroad you and eat the legal costs later. 2, As execution does matter, don’t patents leave the potential for a concept to be poorly executed and its value wasted during the period it might matter most? The lifetime of a patent is huge in the span of tech. Given those questions and the other negatives, including patent trolls and the really broad assignment of patents, I really have to wonder what benefit we’re getting here.

SuoDuanDao 5y ago
> How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? My own impression, "less than they used to be". I read patents from time to time, and there's a huge difference between, say, one of Tesla's patents for which he clearly wrote the application himself and a present-day patent, where the writing was clearly done by a professional unrelated to the technical field. That said, I wonder how out of reach the self-filing route really is. My own patent cost me 2000 Canadian in consultant's fees, essentially to have them proofread my draft and make suggestions. I still had to have a bit of back-and-forth with the examiner, but none of it felt out of reach even today. To my way of thinking, the whole idea of a patent hearkens back to a time when kings granted monopolies and the people getting them took care of the rest. It doesn't make much sense for an inventor today, who would ideally want everyone competing to execute on their idea. There are probably a lot of better alternatives to the patenting system that properly harness the tendency of data to be copied. Maybe some form of a value-added tax for getting into new business segments that automatically get remitted to the inventor? To no one's surprise, coming up with a better idea than the patent system isn't the hard part!
ChrisLomont 5y ago
> How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? Also, how effective is not having a patent at protecting an under-funded inventor? There are ample cases of smaller inventors getting decent payouts from bigger companies stealing the invention, often after having been shown it be the small guy trying to find a way to bring to market. And, if the patent is really valuable, small guys can often find bigger guys to fund patent suits for a cut of the return, just like any business. Not having a patent is not a gain for a small time inventor. When I have done startup style things, I was constantly asked if I have patents. It enables investors to have more leverage to protect the startup from outright copying from bigger, better funded companies.

by pfraze 5y ago

SuoDuanDao 5y ago

> How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? My own impression, "less than they used to be". I read patents from time to time, and there's a huge difference between, say, one of Tesla's patents for which he clearly wrote the application himself and a present-day patent, where the writing was clearly done by a professional unrelated to the technical field. That said, I wonder how out of reach the self-filing route really is. My own patent cost me 2000 Canadian in consultant's fees, essentially to have them proofread my draft and make suggestions. I still had to have a bit of back-and-forth with the examiner, but none of it felt out of reach even today. To my way of thinking, the whole idea of a patent hearkens back to a time when kings granted monopolies and the people getting them took care of the rest. It doesn't make much sense for an inventor today, who would ideally want everyone competing to execute on their idea. There are probably a lot of better alternatives to the patenting system that properly harness the tendency of data to be copied. Maybe some form of a value-added tax for getting into new business segments that automatically get remitted to the inventor? To no one's surprise, coming up with a better idea than the patent system isn't the hard part!

ChrisLomont 5y ago

> How effective are patents at protecting an under-funded inventor? Also, how effective is not having a patent at protecting an under-funded inventor? There are ample cases of smaller inventors getting decent payouts from bigger companies stealing the invention, often after having been shown it be the small guy trying to find a way to bring to market. And, if the patent is really valuable, small guys can often find bigger guys to fund patent suits for a cut of the return, just like any business. Not having a patent is not a gain for a small time inventor. When I have done startup style things, I was constantly asked if I have patents. It enables investors to have more leverage to protect the startup from outright copying from bigger, better funded companies.