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Agreed. Patent trolling isn't the problem - it's a symptom of the wider issue that far too many obvious patents are granted. The reason NPEs are perceived as
by AlisdairO 13y ago
Agreed. Patent trolling isn't the problem - it's a symptom of the wider issue that far too many obvious patents are granted.
The reason NPEs are perceived as a problem is because they break mutually assured destruction. If the patent system were working as intended, we wouldn't need MAD, because it would be possible to write a nontrivial computer program that didn't infringe on someone's patent.
I have no real problem with the concept of an NPE, if their patents are genuinely worthwhile.
- lukifer 13y agoI agree with your general point, but the ability to decide what patents are valid is still a lot of economic power. Even a vastly better-staffed USPTO would still have the capability for incompetence or corruption, at a huge cost to innovation and society. Ultimately, any invention covered by a legitimate patent should probably be protected by a legitimate copyright instead. The flaw in the concept of patents is the one pointed out by Carmack: if someone is capable of reproducing your work independently, then can it really be said to be "owned" by its "creator"? Obviously, no one is going to create an exact copy of Harry Potter or Microsoft Flight Simulator without having seen the original, but they might very well write a wizard school story or plane-based video game; clearly, those concepts do not deserve to be owned. Anything not specific enough to be covered by copyright is capable of being duplicated by another human independently, and therefore absurd and counterproductive to assign ownership and monopoly rights.