Originally Posted by
x88x
Then be the change you wish you could see and make it work. Plenty of companies already publish the results of their research to the public domain, whether through open-source software, scholarly journals, or whatever. It is possible to be profitable and still do this. What route is taken is, of course, up to the person taking it, but just because a large part of the world works one way today does not mean that it is the only way that can work. Just because it is the prevailing trend to operate in a certain way does not mean that we cannot try to promote a different way. A, in my opinion, better way. Break the mold; have the courage to live your ideals; and maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference.
Really, I think the problem is not so much with patents in and of themselves (though I still don't believe in them personally), but with the long term that patents apply (20 years, currently) and the way that they are used today. Originally they were intended to foster innovation by providing an incentive to the innovator of exclusive rights to their creation for a set period of time. Since then, it has been perverted from its original purpose and, imo, now hinders innovation far more than it fosters it. Especially in the technology fields, I believe collaboration is vital in order to advance as well as possible. How many times have vast sums of money been spent re-developing a technology that had already been developed by a competitor? How much time, money, and talent has been lost because of pointless lawsuits because the results of one company's R&D was just a little too similar to another company's product?
One area that has really driven this home to me recently is the area of battery technology. One of the most promising American battery companies (A123 Systems) was unable to pursue making their product and building their business for several years because of a patent lawsuit filed by the University of Oklahoma, who wasn't even doing anything with it. Conversely, some of the biggest breakthroughs in stability, and by far the largest production and market penetration, of modern battery chemistries has come out of China...where for the most part, patents are just ignored if they exist at all.
In my opinion, the current patent system has reached a point where is causes more harm than good; one of the reasons I choose not to use it.
Incidentally, speaking of giant robot guy (well, something he said was the impetus for me starting this thread anyways), convenient timing, but I just stumbled across this video he did, which expresses a good point of view on the results of the current patent system and corporate culture. Even though I think he and I have a bit (though not completely) different ideas on what the best solution to the problem is, I agree with a lot of the points he makes.