Businesses make money, that's their function bottom line.
However, I do agree with limiting the length of time on patents. Just because somebody thinks of an idea doesn't mean that the idea would never have been thought of by somebody else in the future. If a person has an idea on how to improve a product, they're limited because of the original patent. If patents are allowed to be extended for long durations, then advancement on that product from outside sources are severely limited.
Take internet browsing for example. Internet Explorer was great when it first came out. IE and Netscape (AOL too I hate to admit..hah) made the internet alot easier for common people to use. However, they were being advanced a certain way where other people could see room for improvement. Along came the others..Opera/Safari/Firefox/Chrome and added functionality into it that other people wanted and ultimately makes the browsing experience better. Compare IE6 to Chrome for example. Microsoft had to start adapting the product to what people wanted out of browsing (tabbed browsing for example) once alternatives started coming out. Now, I know that Web browsers aren't patented, but that is an example of how something that's not patented allowed progress to be made.
Businesses should be able to make money, but not put a long term stranglehold on an idea.
An example of what I'd consider a frivolous patent is Apples' swipe gesture to unlock the Iphone. Taken to an extreme, can you imagine if there was a patent to "redirect a customer to a different URL by clicking on a link"? All these little obvious patents need to go away.
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(untitled comment)
However, I do agree with limiting the length of time on patents. Just because somebody thinks of an idea doesn't mean that the idea would never have been thought of by somebody else in the future. If a person has an idea on how to improve a product, they're limited because of the original patent. If patents are allowed to be extended for long durations, then advancement on that product from outside sources are severely limited.
Take internet browsing for example. Internet Explorer was great when it first came out. IE and Netscape (AOL too I hate to admit..hah) made the internet alot easier for common people to use. However, they were being advanced a certain way where other people could see room for improvement. Along came the others..Opera/Safari/Firefox/Chrome and added functionality into it that other people wanted and ultimately makes the browsing experience better. Compare IE6 to Chrome for example. Microsoft had to start adapting the product to what people wanted out of browsing (tabbed browsing for example) once alternatives started coming out. Now, I know that Web browsers aren't patented, but that is an example of how something that's not patented allowed progress to be made.
Businesses should be able to make money, but not put a long term stranglehold on an idea.
An example of what I'd consider a frivolous patent is Apples' swipe gesture to unlock the Iphone. Taken to an extreme, can you imagine if there was a patent to "redirect a customer to a different URL by clicking on a link"? All these little obvious patents need to go away.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by jd.
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