Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: The brighter side of patents
Author: Ben Griffiths Posted: 3/10/2000; 7:27:57 AM Topic: Amazon patents continued... Msg #: 15503 (In response to 15439) Prev/Next: 15502 / 15504
There is of course a brighter side to patents, especially for small companies. And this whole argument overlooks how they can be an encouragement to openness and co-operation.With information flowing at the speed of the web, small companies cannot afford to be open and collaborative with their products, for fear that someone with the muscle of say Microsoft or Amazon will steal, reverse engineer, or copy them. I certainly have used patents not to bully, but to allow me to raise capital, invite collaboration, be open with competitors without fear.
Patents allow small businesses to challenge the big guys, and to tout around for start-up finance without fear. Unfortunately, when these small businesses become big boys themselves the trouble starts...
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