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- Newsgroups: misc.int-property,comp.unix.bsd
- Path: sparky!uunet!ukma!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!umeecs!quip.eecs.umich.edu!mcnally
- From: mcnally@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Mike McNally)
- Subject: Re: Patents: What they are. What they aren't. Other factors.
- Message-ID: <1992Nov5.163922.2616@zip.eecs.umich.edu>
- Sender: news@zip.eecs.umich.edu (Mr. News)
- Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
- References: <1992Nov2.202736.4651@netcom.com> <1992Nov3.031010.17641@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <1992Nov4.035758.1767@netcom.com>
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 16:39:22 GMT
- Lines: 45
-
- In article <1992Nov4.035758.1767@netcom.com> mcgregor@netcom.com (Scott Mcgregor) writes:
-
- >I've commented on this before, that the argument about the public good
- >raised by patent opponents sometimes seems to run like this:
- >
- >1) Patents are supposed to benefit the public.
- >
- >2) I'm a member of the public.
- >
- >3) I personally would never be motivated by patents to benefit others.
- >(Being as I am opposed to them)
- >
- >4) I personally would be limited/hurt by the limitations. (Because I'm
- >the type of person who would independently reinvent, or intentionally
- >re-engineer another person's profitable invention).
- >
- >Therefore, generalizing from my personal limitations and lack of
- >benefits, and because I am a member of the public I conclude that the
- >public at large won't benefit. And since that conclusion is at odds
- >with the goal in 1), patents should be eliminated.
-
- You seem to have either a gigantic blindspot or an intentional tendency
- to ignore:
-
- 5) Being an independent programmer without the financial backing of a
- large software development house, I have neither the legal expertise
- nor the financial resources to produce an acceptable patent application.
- A substantial amount of innovation in the field of software comes from
- small-time, independent programmers who would very often be either
- forced to compromise their interest in their innovations by selling
- their intellectual property interests to a firm that did have the
- resources to pursue a patent or be locked out of protecting their
- rights to their creation if they were either unwilling to compromise
- those rights or unable to interest someone in financially backing them.
-
- Patents, with the substantial cost of researching and producing an
- application, dramatically favor those market players who have the
- financial resources it takes to get them. In the software world,
- the richest players are often not the most productive innovators.
- I think that reasonable persons will agree that the tremendous amount
- and variety of innovation produced by the smaller players in the
- game is a Good Thing. I'll leave it to you to figure out whether
- the public would be well served by a system that puts the independent
- at such a disadvantage that it would often be no longer worthwhile
- for them to try to compete.
-