🚀 go-pugleaf

amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) writes:
> In article <1991May7.110551.15080@dce.ie> ch@dce.ie (Charles Bryant) writes:
>    Intellectual property rights means that if I invent something then I
>    can use it as I wish,
[...]
>    however patent law states that if someone else has registered it first
>    I have no right to use my own invention even if I can prove that I
>    invented it totally independently.
> 
> True up to a point.  You can use it in yor own private study and amusement
> all you want.  A patent grants to its holder the right to control public
> distribution for a small period of time, in exchange for placing the details
> of the invention into the public domain.  A patent is not a right; it is
> a commercial incentive.  I can build a copy of any patented device, for
> my own use.  What I cannot do is derive commercial gain from it, or
> distribute it to others.

But that's limiting my rights.

If I invent something myself, develop it myself, test it myself, is it right
that I should be prevented from distributing that thing simply because
someone else has already created something like it?

If I have created something myself, using my own ideas and only my own work,
why should I not have the right to derive commercial gain from that creation?

I think that's what Charles Bryant meant.

Basically, a patent is a bribe; tell the world about your invention and we'll
give you a market monopoly for a while.

Like all bribes, it should only be employed when necessary!


mathew