Dear, I do not speak good English and I need your help or opinion.
Imagine that you are creating a project that is innovative robotics for the
place where you live. You use free software programs to make the mechanical
design of the robot, to create electronics and control software.
All software robot (client-server) is free. The robot uses a plate with
Debian BEAGLEBONE it only works as a server. Suppose the robot works entirely
with free software.
It turns out that many people ask you .... Are you going to patent the
project?
They tell you that other companies can copy your designs and can make robots
at lower prices and you can not compete with them.
Many have raised me to patent to prohibit the commercial exploitation of the
work, but I think allow study and make changes to hardware and software.
Moreover, the patent office of my country, is under the control of people who
are not reliable. This is a separate problem.
This question comes from this thread
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/software-libre-y-prueba-moral
What would your answer and why?
