Patents - Friend or foe of capitalism?

[rpwi]

Curious to see what the people think...

The major problem with patents is simple... What if somebody else would have thought of the idea on their own? In such a case the government patent is state tyranny akin to mercantilism. The patent owner then is able to exercise undo exclusive control over the idea which results in a monopoly...and monopolies result in high prices and reduces supply.

On the flip-side if government does not award exclusive access to an idea...and nobody else would have thought of it...then the inventor is not afforded the proportionate economic awards for his creativity and effort.

It's a tricky issue... And quite wide-spread. You can point your finger almost anywhere in a room...on a street...wherever...and you'll probably be pointing at something that has been patented and has government approved exclusive privileges. In my estimation...your average patent clerk does not and can not have the capability of determining whether the invention is too obvious or would have been invented elsewhere. Furthermore they are under tremendous concentrated commercial pressure to approve as many patents as fast as possible... Many major monopolies and quasi-monopolies that we see strangely dominate certain sectors of the economy...actually do so in part because of their control over critical patents. So IMO it is more important to error on the extreme of not having enough patents...and ultimately the best safeguard may be do to away with patents altogether.

Thoughts?

[hazek]

Huge foe.

Real world evidence:

[specsaregood]

Huge friend.

[Voluntary Man]

patents are a friend of capitalism.

friend of free markets? maybe not so much.

[tttppp]

Foe. First of all patents are worthless in most industries. Usually only the process is patentable, which is largely worthless because if somebody want to, they could just figure out another way to accomplish the same thing. If ideas were patentable, I would say thats bullshit. Nobody has more of a right to an idea than me simply because the patented it first. What matters is who markets their idea first. Thats who the real winner should be. All patents do is reduce the motivation of people to get their ideas to market as quickly as possible.

[Jingles]

A state granted monopoly on a given product/good for a period of time. How is this a friend of the free market?

[rpwi]

Huge foe.

Real world evidence:

...

Interesting video... As bad as it is in the fashion industry...it is MUCH worse in software. All the major applications have and/or will face serious frivolous patent lawsuits. Almost all leading application/OS'es/internet apps...succeed on the backs of numerous patents. eg There will never be another google...not because it requires such economies of scale and skilled talent...but because google owns all the best patents. You can't reinvent the wheel so you're stuck with a of these companies. Not necessarily a patent issue...but did you know Motorola with droid has to pay George Lucas licensing fees...just to use that word? It's ridiculous...and jacking up the prices of droids. Android itself it under so many patent attacks it is absolutely ridiculous...and it'll be a miracle if it survives them all.

[specsaregood]

Not necessarily a patent issue...but did you know Motorola with droid has to pay George Lucas licensing fees...just to use that word?

yeah, I figure that isn't a patent issue at all but rather a trademark issue. Those are 2 completely seperate issues.

[rpwi]

yeah, I figure that isn't a patent issue at all but rather a trademark issue. Those are 2 completely seperate issues.

True enough...but that needs reforming too. Originally trademarks were intended to protect identification. A very good thing...so you know that product X with Y reputation...really does have Y reputation and not reputation Z. But this has really been skewed wacky...and now it is a game of linguistic tag...that has lost it root intent. Does anybody think if you buy a droid that you will be buying a robot from Star Wars? Clearly, this is a case where trademark law has gone awry. Executed properly and on a much more literal and narrow scope than it is now...trademark law is a very good thing. eg I don't want to be buying Chinese knockoffs...

[flynn]

foe.