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A comment on You Don’t Truly Understand It Until You Think It’s Obvious.

Re:You Don’t Truly Understand It Until You Think It’s Obvious by ars on Monday August 15, 2011 @10:29PM (#2889575)
This is part of the trouble with patents.

You can't patent obvious things. But once someone invents something it suddenly seems obvious, and people ridicule the idea of patenting it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:You Don’t Truly Understand It Until You Think It’s Obvious by drcube on Tuesday August 16, 2011 @10:50PM (#2893839)
I don't think you can get more obvious in this day and age than adding "with computers" or "on the internet" to mundane, centuries-old ideas like "showing people things similar to what they are shopping for".

To be honest, I think your argument supports the abolition of patents more than you think it does. EVERY idea was built on the back of previous ideas. "Novelty" is only a matter of degree, and subjective degree at that.

[ Parent | on HN ]