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Originally Posted by uman
Obvious or frivolous ones suck, but why are patents generally bad?
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Certainly not patents
in general I mean (almost all) patents on intellectual property, especially within the realm of computer software.
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Originally Posted by DaWei
Frivolous patents
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As most IP patents are.
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Patents allow creative persons
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*Patents allow large companies
People who grant patents don't usually understand the concept of "creativity".
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before others can cash in at the inventor's expense
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That doesn't stop them, since even logical patents take years to grant. They can be filed by other companies and rejected in favor of said other company's filing...
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because they have more capital available
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...and that is why.
Nowadays, patents generally have the opposite effect of what they're intended to do -- spur the incentive for creative ideas. IP Patents deter intellectual advancement from another person/company/whatever, even if they have more to contribut than the organisation with the patent.
IMO, the idea of patents was implemented because there was a need to stop people from
going out of their way in order to learn the neccesary skills and spending time/money to obtain the neccesary physical
materials to compete with another person's product/idea. However, since there is nothing stopping (and never shold there be) anyone from learning a programming language (or a branch of maths, etc.) and coming up with ideas of their own, nearly all IP patents are frivilous. Learning is not an expense. The ability to learn is free to anyone, and granting patents for something that anyone can do is ridiculous.
Now mind you, I do have at the least a fair knowledge of patents, and as such I certainly don't see the idea of patent law as being unneccesary. At least with regard to the USPTO, patents for Intellectual Property are being misguidedly granted due to a lack of knowledge on the behalf of the granter, and the potential grantee should know better. However, a wealth of knowledge does not stop the desire for wealth of another kind, no matter how unneccesary it may be.
Ideas can be patentable and overtly complex ones should be, but far too many people (and companies) believe that their idea is something that has never been thought of before by all of mankind, and they have the tactics and cash to prevent progress by others to secure income -- not to mention that prior art is MUCH harder to prove than it seems.