3 ms·
This just seems too good to be true. And why do they have a patent on it if it's open source? Do they mean just the code? (It only looks like it has the MIT l
by MR4D 4y ago
This just seems too good to be true.
And why do they have a patent on it if it's open source? Do they mean just the code? (It only looks like it has the MIT license, so assuming just the code).
IF it's real, then it's pretty neat.
- breck 4y agoPatented products are strictly worse. Imagine Monocle engineers come up with a slightly better design, but they realize it's not covered by their patent. What will they do? As soon as one has a patent, then they are incentivized to sell their patented thing, not to switch to the thing that is better for their customers. Patents are a way for lawyers to inject themselves where they don't belong to extract rent, making us all worse off. Patents are a negative sum game.
- UncleEntity 4y ago> What will they do? File a new patent?
- harry8 4y ago>> What will they do? >File a new patent? Maybe. That has non-zero cost and if the patent office is doing its job the new thing may not be patentable because it is better and there is prior art etc. etc. The original concern is valid w.r.t. patents in addition to the many, many other concerns surrounding how they are used nowadays and indeed how much BS there has always been since Alexander Graham Bell stole the telephone idea from someone else at the patent office and then used patent enforcement to good effect. It is extremely widely believed around here that things are much worse with respect patents now. "Patents encourage innovation" seems to have become an idea that marks one out as unbelievably naive. Or a lawyer.
- traverseda 4y agoIt's not that much beyond what hobbyists are already making for HMDs.