Re:Folding bicycle small enough to fit in hand luggage
by mattl on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @08:02PM
(#30773219)
UK has design copyrights to basically permit the double dipping.
Re:Folding bicycle small enough to fit in hand luggage
by unfocussed_mike on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @04:31AM
(#30776292)
Design protection (design patents etc.) is not a UK invention, is it? It's a well-recognised WIPO tool at this point anyway.
Re:Folding bicycle small enough to fit in hand luggage
by markdown on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @08:23PM
(#30773356)
Must be why there's so little innovation going on there.
Re:Folding bicycle small enough to fit in hand luggage
by unfocussed_mike on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @04:30AM
(#30776285)
For a small island with a very British habit of regular, unnecessary self-crippling, there's quite a lot of innovation going on here. Just not a lot of self-congratulatory "disruptive" internet BS innovation.
e.g. ARM, Dyson, the RepRap project, the Raspberry Pi, the Oxford/AZ vaccine, Rolls-Royce jet engines. Graphene. The micro-satellite. Vantablack. The genuinely trailblazing .gov.uk project. Quorn. Cloning!
And most importantly, the tikka massala, the balti, and the Henry vaccum cleaner.
(And, someone told me the other day, bungee jumping. Sorry about that)
I have no idea if our IP regime is worse or better than anywhere else's; we do not have a tradition of crazy software patents, though, so my guess is better, not worse.
The concern is that they're double-dipping. They had a patent. Patents expire after 20 years, but give you exclusive right to use an invention in the meantime. After a patent expires, what's supposed to happen is that anyone can make use of it.
After the patent expired, they started abusing copyright to kill competition.
It's incredibly unethical to try and have it both ways. They had their patent. Their patents is gone. Competitors should be allowed to use the technology in that patent, without worrying about a random court for some forsaken reason allowing them to abuse copyright to stop competitors from being able to compete.