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Patents should only be for things, not software or methods.

marssaxman 2y ago
After seeing what a mess it makes to allow patents on software, I feel skeptical that patents on things are a good idea, either.
- mrandish 2y ago
  I was just thinking the same thing. I used to just sort of accept that patents were a reasonable and necessary thing. Then after being in the actual business of software for a while as a startup entrepreneur and seeing the complete mess spurious patent claims cause, how patents are so often deployed by mega-corps to defend against startups, and the huge number of grifters the patent "industry" attracts, it's made me more open to the idea that just maybe the whole idea of patents has more negatives than positives, at least in current times. Maybe big pharma and biotech should realize that large scale patent abuse is making people question the whole thing and start lobbying against software patents.
  - tivert 2y ago
    >> After seeing what a mess it makes to allow patents on software, I feel skeptical that patents on things are a good idea, either. > I was just thinking the same thing. I used to just sort of accept that patents were a reasonable and necessary thing. Then after being in the actual business of software for a while as a startup entrepreneur and seeing the complete mess spurious patent claims cause, how patents are so often deployed by mega-corps to defend against startups, and the huge number of grifters the patent "industry" attracts, it's made me more open to the idea that just maybe the whole idea of patents is now more trouble than it's worth. IMHO, that's taking it too far. IP is a solution that solved certain problems; but it's been so effective that those original problems are so alien that people overreact to the imperfections of the solution in extreme ways (like, "let's abolish it all").
    - marssaxman 2y ago
      If intellectual-property protections were clearly beneficial for makers of physical things, you'd expect China to have adopted them by now: but their manufacturing sector appears to be thriving without. So far as I can tell, the problem IP laws originally solved was that wealthy people wanted another way to create monopolies and extract rents. For that purpose, they certainly are effective.
Pedro_Ribeiro 2y ago
What do you mean by "things"? I don't believe patents have done any good what so ever.

After seeing what a mess it makes to allow patents on software, I feel skeptical that patents on things are a good idea, either.

mrandish 2y ago
I was just thinking the same thing. I used to just sort of accept that patents were a reasonable and necessary thing. Then after being in the actual business of software for a while as a startup entrepreneur and seeing the complete mess spurious patent claims cause, how patents are so often deployed by mega-corps to defend against startups, and the huge number of grifters the patent "industry" attracts, it's made me more open to the idea that just maybe the whole idea of patents has more negatives than positives, at least in current times. Maybe big pharma and biotech should realize that large scale patent abuse is making people question the whole thing and start lobbying against software patents.
- tivert 2y ago
  >> After seeing what a mess it makes to allow patents on software, I feel skeptical that patents on things are a good idea, either. > I was just thinking the same thing. I used to just sort of accept that patents were a reasonable and necessary thing. Then after being in the actual business of software for a while as a startup entrepreneur and seeing the complete mess spurious patent claims cause, how patents are so often deployed by mega-corps to defend against startups, and the huge number of grifters the patent "industry" attracts, it's made me more open to the idea that just maybe the whole idea of patents is now more trouble than it's worth. IMHO, that's taking it too far. IP is a solution that solved certain problems; but it's been so effective that those original problems are so alien that people overreact to the imperfections of the solution in extreme ways (like, "let's abolish it all").
  - marssaxman 2y ago
    If intellectual-property protections were clearly beneficial for makers of physical things, you'd expect China to have adopted them by now: but their manufacturing sector appears to be thriving without. So far as I can tell, the problem IP laws originally solved was that wealthy people wanted another way to create monopolies and extract rents. For that purpose, they certainly are effective.

Pedro_Ribeiro 2y ago

What do you mean by "things"? I don't believe patents have done any good what so ever.