[Trisquel-users] Re : Automation, free software and moral duty

[lcerf]

Your examples are patents on software or processes. No doubt those patents  
(illegal in most jurisdictions: in the EU, in China, in India, in Brazil,  
etc.) work against innovation. However, I am not sure that statement can be  
generalized to any type of patent. In fact, patents were introduced as an  
alternative to industrial secret, so that knowledge is spread across the  
whole society after twenty years of monopoly. And patents on physical systems  
are to be specific and worded in precise terms (e.g., the "best mode" in US  
patents).