4 ms·
What I don't understand is why in the world are companies allowed to buy patents in the first place? At the very least, patents should NOT be transferable. How
by bad_user 13y ago
What I don't understand is why in the world are companies allowed to buy patents in the first place? At the very least, patents should NOT be transferable.
How is it acceptable for companies with big pockets to simply buy 6,000 patents and then sue the shit out of whomever they don't like?
I mean, to some degree, I accept that patents in the health-care industry are helping, because research labs spend years and enormous amount of money on research, with results that can be easily copied. And so they need the first mover advantage in bringing the product they researched on the market. It's not perfect, but at least it has some economical and moral ground.
But how in the world is it acceptable for patents to be transferred, like they are assets? If you weren't the one doing the research, then you shouldn't be the one that benefits from a government-granted monopoly, no matter how much money you have.
- Myrmornis 13y agoKnow nothing about this. But say they couldn't be transferred. Then you could have moribund companies holding a patent and doing nothing with it thus stopping other people from doing something that would benefit the world. But given that they can be transferred, there is a market, so a moribund company has an incentive to pass the patent on, and the patented thing gets realized, by someone.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bad_user 13y agoThe fix is easy - if you can't bring it to market, then you lose it. Or lets just ban patents altogether. No matter the negative effects, it would be saner than what we currently have.