Muz, we have to find citations now.
I tell what I see at the university (and technically, I was speaking about fundamental research in physic, which rarely produce patent, for all I know) and what the professors are complaining about. Now of course, that kind of research is damn expensive.
It's pretty hard to cite personal experience without breaching privacy. I could spend an hour digging up some data on it, but I'm lazy because this thread will discuss something else by tommorrow and the point will be lost
But you're likely right about patents not working for physics. I didn't notice that angle. Psychology ties well with politicians and gets money from them. Engineering is sort of like a sweet spot that businesses rely on. I see patents as sort of like a business model. There's no money to be made from research alone, patents help turn it into cash.
Even without patents, fundamental research would still get a lot less funding because there's no guarantee of success and what success they do get would most likely not be commercializable. They might get a slightly bigger cut of the pie without the patent system, but the pie would be a little smaller.
ideas should be spread freely, and used freely. I don't believe in the ownership of an idea. I believe that the benefits of uncontrolled ideas are greater than all the ways idiots can ruin it.
until the day that this is made law, I will respect the rules, despite my disagreement with them.
Uh, there's no law against using ideas freely
You can't patent, copyright, trademark an idea. You can only patent a specific implementation of an idea. And only when it's not obvious or when it's not already in use. Patent laws are tough. AND if you didn't know, patents are freely visible to everyone. You just have to pay when commercializing it. You can, say, invent something else off a similar concept and that'd be fine, as long as the patented stuff isn't a component used in your own invention.
I'm sure you mean implementation.. well then, the law only goes as far as you let it. They cover the concept that if you spend a few years building up an implementation and go out and claim that it's yours, then you can do what you like with it for a few years. After that, it's all free knowledge.
It's like say... locking your house. The law says that people aren't allowed to enter your house without permission, but if you're the party type who wants everyone to come, then you can open to everyone. Or if you want specific people to come in exchange for a cake or something, then it's up to you.
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Topic: (Intellectual Property) How do you convince someone? (Read 5804 times)