20-06-2023, 06:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 20-06-2023, 07:04 PM by Mike Watterson.)
Patents are only any use to large corporations. Also they can patent stuff that's really doable by anyone versed in the art. The USPTO gets more money from approving patents than rejecting them and really do little prior-art research, or anything. The system is that it's up to a competitor to test the "patent" in court.
What Jeffrey writes is true. It's about who has the deep pockets. Apple, Qualcomm and IBM may spend more on "patents" and patent lawyers in their R&D budget than on engineers actually developing stuff. A start-up may expend a lot on patent preparation and applications just to look good to investors. See Theranos.
Patents haven't really been about protecting a small inventor's idea since early Victorian era. Edison famously weaponised them, which resulted in Hollywood and eventually his motion picture patents were invalidated by the Governement for economic reasons, rather than the fact that he didn't invent motion pictures at all. The USPTO was not reformed and is now far worse.
Copyrights are easier to protect and in some fields associations will come to your defence even if the predator is Disney.
But even with copyright and trademarks and Registered Designs (USA = Design Patents), the system is on the site of the corporation.
Coca-Cola, Apple (though they lost to Fujitsu, Cisco, Beatles and Swiss Rail, but those have money), Amazon, Vogue, Time Warner/Warner Discovery, Lindt. Disney, Oracle etc.
What Jeffrey writes is true. It's about who has the deep pockets. Apple, Qualcomm and IBM may spend more on "patents" and patent lawyers in their R&D budget than on engineers actually developing stuff. A start-up may expend a lot on patent preparation and applications just to look good to investors. See Theranos.
Patents haven't really been about protecting a small inventor's idea since early Victorian era. Edison famously weaponised them, which resulted in Hollywood and eventually his motion picture patents were invalidated by the Governement for economic reasons, rather than the fact that he didn't invent motion pictures at all. The USPTO was not reformed and is now far worse.
Copyrights are easier to protect and in some fields associations will come to your defence even if the predator is Disney.
But even with copyright and trademarks and Registered Designs (USA = Design Patents), the system is on the site of the corporation.
Coca-Cola, Apple (though they lost to Fujitsu, Cisco, Beatles and Swiss Rail, but those have money), Amazon, Vogue, Time Warner/Warner Discovery, Lindt. Disney, Oracle etc.
