3 ms·
Bleurgh.
by JosephRedfern 11y ago
Bleurgh.
- bsenftner 11y agoWould you rather people spend time developing in this area only to learn they can't use their work?
- StavrosK 11y agoNo, he would rather be free to use the code he wrote.
- bsenftner 11y agoWhich is the exact situation I found myself in: I began developing in this area, and learned of patents I needed to sidestep. Realizing a hole in the patent landscape, I filed to protect what I was doing.
- TranquilMarmot 11y agoSo now other people have to sidestep a sidestep?
- zo1 11y agoIt's only an issue because the original "sidestepper" sold-off, or was perhaps bullied into selling (theory), the patent to an entity. An entity that will unfortunately just hold it in a "bag of tricks" until they need it, or decide to play with it, or decide to litigate with, or decide to "license" out usage of it to another big player willing to fork over money for it. Had an innovative tinkerer kept it, then who knows what might have happened. But I'd take a wild guess and say that the odds are more likely that a such an innovator would allow others the use/play/profit off of their novel ideas than would a large entity that sees it as a potential avenue of competition.
- JosephRedfern 11y agoI'm not saying that. It's just frustrating.
- bsenftner 11y agoTry doing this 10 years ago, putting your life savings into it, and then VCs and media companies "not getting it", your money runs out, and then you have to sell your IP simply to pay the rent.
- JosephRedfern 11y agoI'm not meaning to criticize you personally (at all). I'm just saying that the idea of being able to "declare ownership" of what is essentially a series of mathematical operations just doesn't feel quite right. I realise that people have to make money some how, but developing a useful, competitive, monetisable product that people are able to choose to buy is, in my opinion, the way forwards. Patenting the technology so that you can operate without competition rather than developing your product to stay ahead of the competition "organically" seems like the wrong way of doing it to me. Perhaps I'm an idealist, and need to get real...
- bsenftner 11y agoI agree with you. But the patent system exists... A startup has to protect its work. Plus, when pitching for financing the first set of questions include "Is this patented?" If you answer no and don't have a valid reason why not, they tell you to get it patented and come back when that is done.
- harperlee 11y agoThis is a good comment, much better than the "Bleurgh" one, so I transferred you a vote (down there, up here).
- mentat 11y agoSo, there are an infinite number of things that are just series of mathematical operations. It's the ones that are useful that matter. Why would we not compensate people for discovering them?
- angersock 11y agoIf you and people like you hadn't patented these things, they would've been able to use their work. Thanks for the warning, at least. :(
- bsenftner 11y agoThe patent system exists. When I filed, there were already dozens of patents in this area. I was simply trying to protect my own work for my startup.
- ksrm 11y agoYour argument seems to be "everyone else is doing it, so it's fine". I'm not having a go at you, but that doesn't seem like a very strong argument.
- bsenftner 11y agoI needed financing for my startup based on this technology. After an initial financing search, it became clear it had to be patented to get financing. To some degree, patents are a mechanism forcing early technology companies into expensive legal engagements, which drain resources from the company, triggering hefty financing requirements, and a dilution of the inventor's equity. It is a carefully crafted system that benefits the 1% entirely, and the remaining 99% are merely the crop they farm.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoDon't worry about the naysayers. I am in the same position as you right now as we are doing work with AR and computer vision that people/investors etc... don't get yet. Maybe we are too early in the market, but probably not. If we are too early then at least we have something that we can fall back on without losing everything we have put into it. At the end of the day I have to be able to say that I did everything I could to make our technology "win" in the marketplace.
- 11y ago