Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Patents

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:9/21/2000; 10:15:41 PM
Topic:Patents
Msg #:21622 (In response to 21620)
Prev/Next:21621 / 21623

The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.

And the idea that you could set out to solve a problem without bothering to see if it has been solved before is horrifying.

The only scenario that I can see would be to have enough truly, blatantly stupid patents prosecuted that someone could make a stand in congress and show the public in an understandable way just how wrong it is.

One interesting statistic is that in the majority of cases where one company sues another for patent infringement, the company being sued countersues for antitrust violation and ends up either winning or getting the case thrown out. (At least this was true a few years ago). The point being that a company taking out a patent hopes to never be forced to use a lawsuit, and it is very difficult to enforce a patent without being considered anticompetetive. There are very few companies who use litigation as a competetive technique (in fact, I think that someone is trying to patent that business technique right now) and companies like that do not generally inspire trust or become very successful.

-J

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