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If not for patent protection they'd be trade secrets inside Apple and if anything they'd talk about them less. Whether or not those trade secrets were likely t
by majormajor 3y ago
If not for patent protection they'd be trade secrets inside Apple and if anything they'd talk about them less.
Whether or not those trade secrets were likely to leak before or after the expiration of the patent... well... in theory the patents mean you get the info out there even for the failed companies where leaks wouldn't be interesting. In practice you've got patent trolls.
I think it would make sense to shorten the patent length for certain things, based on how fast the state of the art in that industry is moving, but it would be hard to make everyone happy with whoever was in charge of deciding those terms.
- jiggawatts 3y agoWithout patents: You are not provided any information, useful or otherwise. You can obtain this information any way you please, and use it. E.g.: reverse engineering. With patents: You are provided with useless information. Information that is literally deliberately designed not to be useful. You can't practically speak use it. If you do obtain the information in any other way, you'll be sued into the ground. You'll be sued even if you've never seen the patent. You'll be sued even if your own invention is only vaguely similar. You'll just be sued, let's leave it at that.
- convolvatron 3y agodon't forget willful damages. a long time ago I used to read the patents to understand the landscape and make sure my novel work was not infringing. now we all have to _never even look_, because that might support someone's claim that you were aware of their patent and chose to violate it anyways - triple damages