News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on How broken is the USPTO: How is this a patent. Parent comment

Re:How broken is the USPTO: How is this a patent by mcphage on Sunday August 12, 2018 @11:19PM (#17747834)
> In general you will see massive innovation as soon as a patent expires.

As tofof said, that’s absolutely the entire point of the patent system. The original inventor (Watt?) patented his invention. For a period of time, he could use it exclusively. And then the patent expires and everyone gets to use it. Everyone wins.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How broken is the USPTO: How is this a patent by dantheman on Monday August 13, 2018 @03:53AM (#17748631)
Except that market forces are enough to drive innovation.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How broken is the USPTO: How is this a patent by mcphage on Monday August 13, 2018 @08:09PM (#17754632)
Market forces are enough to do lots of good things, but that doesn’t mean that they will, because they’re also enough to do lots of bad things.
[ Parent | on HN ]