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Tomlinson, Steven B wrote: | | This system has worked quite well for the last 200+ years in providing many | of the modern conveniences I enjoy every day. | | I feel encouraged that if I do invent something completely novel I can | recoup the investment I made in pursuit of the invention for a limited time. | Ok, I lied, I do have more to say. What Steve say's is absolutely correct. I am afraid, however, that in today's world, the system is not just slightly out of tune, it's become something else entirely. How many individuals make significant money from a single Patent? The romantic image of the garage inventor had already peaked when the Apple Computer was invented. Edison, the archetype individual inventor, really created the corporate Patent factory. The better archetype is Tesla, and the corporate world of Patents did him little good, in the end. It was only his personal friendship with George Westinghouse that kept him going. Edison was dead wrong about electric generation technology and almost set the US back, if not for Westinghouse. Lee de Forest was not so lucky in finding a generous industrialist with his Triod tube patent, he died in poverty after fighting the Patent system. Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM radio and patented the heterodyne circuits which he invented while a junior in college, also ran into the corporate world of Patent law in industrialist David Sarnof(RCA) (as well as Lee de Forest, strangely enough) ended up a broken man jumping out of his parents apartment in New York City.
Patents are now investments for the corporate world. They are useful in all sorts of non-innovative situations. An individual Patent is worth more because it can be sold or bartered into a patent investment portfolio, then it is as a foundation for an individual inventor's wealth or the betterment of society.
The framers of the Constituition had little idea (well maybe Hamilton did) how corporations would evolve beyond small groups of investment cartels. Hamilton himself is an interesting case as he apparently discovered that there was more to life then the organization and ended up committing suicide by duel when he refused to fire his first and second shots in his duel with Aaron Burr.
If you think Patents reflect the level of innovation, then the innovation flag has passed to the Japanese. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
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