this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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im alright with the protection of specific works from copying, but patents can fuck off
'ideas' should not be protected unless there was a reasonable expectation of privacy or compensation
I.E. ideas that were made public without consent or ideas that were part of a sales pitch or something, sure, but the moment that ideas are made public with consent, they should be considered public domain
exclusive right to make something because you happened to be the first one to think of it shouldnt exist, other parties should have the option to directly compete with your product to encourage innovation
also, any trademark law that isnt expressly for consumer protection can fuck off
if i buy a laptop that clearly has the apply logo on it, sure, i should be able to reasonably expect that i am actually buying an apple laptop, with the quality expected of an apple laptop
if im buying a t-shirt with an apple logo on it, or stickers with the apple logo on them, or a phone case with an apple logo on it but that's clearly from a different company there shouldn't be any issue
Patents are tricky. They only last twenty years, but they actually probably have the opposite effect to what you're thinking they do.
Consider the situation where patents didn't exist. I invent something cool. Then I try to start selling it. Well, someone from a company notices my widget idea the moment it hits the market. Or, the company I ask to manufacture my widget, with basic runs easily costing over $100,000 for say injection molded parts, decides that instead of me selling it, they will just sell it themselves, or even provide the drawings to a company they normally get hired by.
Aaaand now I spent money developing this widget, time, effort, but now you won't see a dime. Guess I'll just not invent something next time.
What if I can patent my widget instead?
Now the manufacturing company can only produce it with my consent for twenty years. And now if a company wants to cash in on my widget, they have to buy it from me. Now I have a huge incentive to invent, innovate, and design, because I can either produce it myself, or I can get a fat stack of cash for it from someone who will take over for me while I continue to innovate.
The public facing nature of patents also lets people innovate off of each other even without violating patents by spreading research and design time, while still encouraging innovation in our current economic system.
In other words, patents protect 'the little guy' a lot more than you realize. There are issues with patents, such as a big company buying socially beneficial tech and then burying it for the next twenty years. This has happened many times. It's a problem.
But that's the inventor's choice, right? Patents incentivize publishing inventions: you make your invention public in exchange for exclusivity for 20 years or so.
The other choice they have is to keep it a trade secret, which is kept private for as long as you choose, but you don't get any exclusivity if someone else comes along and invents the same thing on their own.
By creating a system of laws where publication gets rewarded, we encourage those people in that industry to freely publish rather than guarding their secrets to die with them.