[Linux-aus] FOSS patent infringements

[Peter Miller]

On Fri, 2007-05-18 at 13:37 +1000, Paul Wayper wrote:
> The second is that the patent is now on public record and, after the
> inventor has made their money out of it and its time has expired,
> everyone can use it.  This is just the 'standing on the shoulders of
> giants' thing.  To me, this is the key reason why patents are useful -
> so that you have a public record of ideas that can be used and improved
> on that builds up over time.

And therein lies the Achilles heel of the patent system:

If the system worked, The Patent Office would publish huge multi-volume
sets of books called "How Things Work" which would be full of lucid
prose and be amazingly gobsmackingly useful.  Experimenters would first
consult "How Things Work" to avoid reinventing the wheel.  Inventors
applying for patents would submit said lucid prose.

Yeah, right.


Regards
Peter Miller <millerp at canb.auug.org.au>
/\/\*        http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/

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