From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Dec 22 1999 - 05:38:25 MST
On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> But just because one might
> presently benefit from the system that shouldn't prevent one from
> imagining what the world might be like without it.
I do think about this Lee. And I may just have a way to the light
at the end of the tunnel. You have to speed up the rate of innovation
to the point where the "value" of the protection you get in a patent
or a copyright is depreciated so fast that it is pointless to pay
for the lawyers to seek or enforce the protection that you get with
a patent or copyright.
The thing you have to look at is *where* the inertia is in the process.
Right now invention (or writing software) is "hard" and "laborious".
But it is getting to the point where "inventing" a chip to process
a communications protocol or writing the associated software is
relatively simple. The value is shifting more and more to the
inertia of the markets. A quick search reveals that 3com has something
like 224 patents. I don't buy 3com products because their patents
may make them *marginally* better than the "clones" that are *much*
cheaper, I buy 3com products because I perceive them to be a reliable
and reputable supplier who will support their guarantees.
So 3com may be filing patent applications because that is the way
the game is played, but I suspect they know that their business
is moving so fast that most of the patents will be obsolete long
before their term of enforcement expires. The question is whether
we can get other industries, including old ones like big Pharma
and new ones such as biobots to the point where the rate of innovation
makes patents & copyrights relatively useless. If the productivity
of engineers/scientists gets to the point where there is no payback
on having them take the time to file patent applications then the
problem will go away. In the long run, I think trade secret is the
way to go.
Robert
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