Patents do not help encourage growth of ideas and innovation, they are inventions by large corporations to artificially defend their position.
Firstly i will address Cedrics examples which included Google, Facebook, Zynga and others. I believe it is fair to say they are big and leaders simply and primarily because they bring new ideas that the public wants. Has any of these companies used patents to defend their position ? If they have i seriously doubt patents really made a difference in defending their market leadership or signficant share in the sphere that they exist. On the other hand the only reason, ltos is happening in software is simply because softeware is new and offers many creative solutions to be born, many of which have not yet been thought up of. If patents really helped, then perhaps explain why just about all other large important markets in our world are consolidating into less competitors rather than more. Example: Cars === There used to be literally tens or hundreds of manufacturers at the turn of the century in every large country, and yet the number of players has become barely a dozen. Oil == If we ignore the artificial breakup of Standard Oil - we still have no new oil companies in the last 50 years.Bp, Total, Shell and the Standard Oil group of companies remain almost monopolies in their home countries and more. Televisions ======== Lots has happened in the past few years, lcds, leds and so on, and yet the companies remain pretty much the same as the ones that were in the market ten years ago. How has patents help new innovation in any of these areas, if at all ? Back on patents...I cant think of a single example where patents have helped a company grow or defend their position. If a company needs patents theres a reasonable chance its because they cant compete with a real product and is left to something unreal. It was going to die anyway. On the other hand, big companies have killed lots of little guys who have ideas but amongst their many problems are hindered by patents and other legal bullshit. Patents are artificial inventions who only help big established companies. If some company wants to copy your idea they can do it anyway with a slight tweek. Did patents help Facebook stop Google from bringing Google+ to the public. Of course not, a big company can always change things just enough or redefine "it" to attract the public. You cant patent every possible mutation of some idea. Patents are what Big companies throw at little guys to distract, annoy, kill, burden little guys. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
