On 08/09/2011 11:06 AM, Kirk wrote:
Sorry to object but I think I did mention the estimated costs of patents to
business in the US to be 500,000,000,000USD. Please tell me what is not sound
and quantitative about that number? Is there a church of the 1/2 trillion USD
that I missed? Maybe a spin-off of the church of the flying spaghetti monster
(as an interesting aside, a recognized religion in Austria and has the official
head gear of a strainer) One may argue about the means to the number (as there
is no way to regression test it) but this is a number. Most successful techie
business people I know just try to live with it and get on with life.. they've
not tried to change it.
That's a cost. Usually one pays for a cost and gets a value in return.
Are also you saying that the returned value is $0? Is it really like
that? I suspect it isn't. The point is whether it is less or more than
1/2 trillion (first, of course, the question is about whether the
estimate is right). And who's benefitting that value.
I suspect there's no shared consensus on that. For instance, the
so-called "stimuli" to economy that have been implemented in USA had a
large cost too. Some say there's a value in return. Some say there isn't
(personally, looking at the sequence of events that climaxed in this
week, I'd say I'm with the latter ones, but it's just my opinion). Same
for similar operations in EU, like pumping money into reducing spreads.
Given my examples, in any case patents appear to be just one of the
problems in economy. To us techies, they are so important because they
affect technology and innovation, which are values for us. For the
economy in general, these two things are just two means. Since aren't
techies the ones who govern the world...
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people
[email protected]
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