yOn Fri, 27 Jul 2007, Michel Jullian wrote: > > mindlessly keeping it secret and defending against idea theives > > The patent system, however imperfect it may be, was made to prevent just > this: you disclose your invention, and you get exclusive rights for a > couple decades in return. Presumably the state of things before patents > existed was worse.
You miss my point. I was complaining about the hypocricy of religious inventors who first announce that the invention is a gift from god, intended for all mankind... but then they turn around and treat the invention as their personal ticket to immense fame and vast wealth. And then they try to patent it in order to prevent mankind from freely using the idea, while at the same time accusing all interested parties of being idea theives. (I don't know how closely Pantone matches this description.) Of course for a NON-religious inventor, it becomes a matter of honest upfront greed without the dishonest twists and flakey hypocricy. Perhaps atheist inventors could better promote a discovery while avoiding being corrupted by the possibility of fame and wealth? Also FE devices create a patent catch-22: for inventions which are outside of contemporary physics, you can't get a patent unless you first give very solid proof that your device really works. And such proof without disclosure has proved difficult in the past (or at least expensive.) Inventions which remain within conventional science don't run into this closed-loop barrier of disclosure-before-patenting. (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
