Re:Volvo Gave Away the Most Important Design They Ever Patented
by zanny on Thursday August 01, 2013 @08:35PM
(#6144673)
Patents are meant to prevent small independent inventors from being crushed by big group to-market strategy taking their invention and out-competing them because they didn't have to invest the R&D.
Today, there is no R&D on a lot of this crap, the big guys just patent it to crush the smaller guys with the patents instead of taking their ideas.
At least in the former, the information is out there.
Just look at what happens to ANY safety patent, save from this one.
none of them are free. they all carry royalties. Better yet, get away from automobiles and look at medical patents. The most lucrative ones are for disposable cathereres(not sure the word in english). they are sometimes nothing more than a straw and a needle. yet patents abound.
How many lives could them save with each safety or health patent? Should we draw a line that if a patent is useful it should be free? ...that goes directly opposite to the justification of a patent to begin with.