From: david_musick@juno.com
Date: Wed May 19 1999 - 11:46:31 MDT
jonwill wrote:
"The profit motive as facilitated by the patent system promotes private
research efforts. It would be interesting if someone could devise a way
to increase such efforts."
The patent system has been a good way to ensure that inventors are
rewarded for their efforts, and it has provided incentive for people to
invest time and money on the research necessary to create new inventions.
However, the patent system was created before the Internet, and the
Internet allows for more effective ways of rewarding creative people and
thus promoting greater creativity.
I would like to see the development of a system where creative
individuals can sell their ideas through the Internet. Those looking for
ideas to buy could read brief descriptions of the idea and could then pay
to access more details. Those selling ideas would decide how much they
want to sell the details of their idea for and how they want the price to
change over time. Of course, anyone would still be able to get a patent
on their ideas; I'm just thinking about a system for actually marketing
and making money on ideas.
Lets say I came up with an invention that I know several competing
companies would be interested in. These companies could be notified of
the idea and also of the fact that their competitors are being offered
the chance to buy the idea also. I could sell my idea to all companies
interested, or I could allow them to bid against each other, and I could
sell my idea to the highest bidder, with the agreement that I will not
disclose the idea to others for a certain period of time. I see many
different possibilities for making money off ideas.
The full details of such a system have yet to be worked out by me, but I
anticipate the development of companies which market ideas for creative
people. Anyone could contribute ideas, and as the company sold the
ideas, they would make money for themselves and their clients. It seems
like this would be an effective way to promote creativity among humans.
I would appreciate any comments you have on this idea.
the creative potential of humans is greatly undervalued
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