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A comment on Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also Android. Parent comment

Re:Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also And... by WanderPanda on Thursday June 03, 2021 @05:48AM (#27379010)
> Human knowledge stand on the giant shoulders of others and patent and copyright with ever-greening and useless litigation are making it hard and difficult. Can't fathom someone can copyright a rectangle drawing and sue phone companies for launching rectangle phones.

How is this even an argument, given that patents expire?

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Re:Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also And... by dragonsh on Thursday June 03, 2021 @06:52AM (#27379374)
It is an argument given there is a concept of ever-greening. Also most of the time Patent system stifles the innovation it was designed to encourage [1]

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/patent-system-often-stifle...

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Re:Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also And... by TeMPOraL on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:23AM (#27379569)
> How is this even an argument, given that patents expire?

These days, many patented technologies expire faster than patents on them. In those cases, patents are quite literally halting progress.

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Re:Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also And... by WanderPanda on Thursday June 03, 2021 @03:58PM (#27386497)
Wait, are you saying that because technological progress is too fast, technological progress is slow?
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Re:Huawei replaces Android with HarmonyOS, which is also And... by TeMPOraL on Thursday June 03, 2021 @06:00PM (#27387955)
Yes. It's because technological progress is fast in general, halting a particular avenue of development down can cause it to never be pursued again.

Technological progress isn't a line, it's a graph. Someone patents an invention and decides to sit on it, and by the time the patent expires, the entire technological environment has shifted around in a way which makes that invention worthless, and follow-up work unlikely to happen. Whereas, were it not for that patent, the invention would had people extending it further, perhaps generating even more immediately useful technologies.

In this way, a patent - in particular, a defensive patent, taken to prevent anyone from developing a technology that endangers your business - is closing off avenues of progress.

[ Parent | on HN ]