A few days ago there was a story about some lady creating a new kind of coat-hanger that you can fold so it takes up less space.[1] Pretty simple idea once you

A few days ago there was a story about some lady creating a new kind of coat-hanger that you can fold so it takes up less space.[1] Pretty simple idea once you see the finished product, but getting all the details right so it actually works well isn't always easy, and it took her about three years(!) Presumably she wasn't working on it full-time for 3 years, but clearly a lot of effort went in to this "simple" idea. But now that the idea is "out there" everyone can produce it, perhaps even cheaper. Actually, all other things being equal they will always be cheaper because they don't have three years of development costs. Does this mean that selling these coat hangers is a "flawed business model" because cheap Chinese knock-offs can undercut her (small) business? I know lots of people here don't have a lot of love for patents, and neither do I, but these kind of protections do exist for a reason. That doesn't mean I think that our current systems of patents is the best solution, but it also doesn't mean we shouldn't have any protections. And "be better at marketing" strikes me as a very poor answer. My point here is that "produce something, but take a bit of protection against being exploited" is fairly reasonable in many cases. I also don't think it's "artificially" because under more traditional EULA-type software you're not allowed to do anything except "run it, but only in the way we want". [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292915 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292915