Comments on Eric Reasons: Does Intellectual Property Law Foster Innovation?

I think it'll foster innovation. The intellect...

2011-08-18T04:51:11.030-04:00

I think it'll foster innovation. The intellectual property law can definitely be a huge factor in that industry.

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Anonymous- You're stating the argument for In...

2009-07-29T07:21:50.383-04:00

Anonymous-

You're stating the argument for Intellectual Property much like I did in the first paragraph:

"Patent and copyright were established in this country under the assumption that the limited-term monopoly rights for creators foster innovation. The promise of exclusive reward to a creator for some set period of time provides incentive to pursue the overhead costs of research, invention, and innovation."

The point, as it were, was to give us pause and to question this assumption. I think the related story about James Watt does this nicely.

This article misses the point. Inventions often t...

2009-07-24T09:59:44.275-04:00

This article misses the point. Inventions often take a great deal of time and money to develop. If an inventor is not to be rewarded for the effort and risk involved, then he will probably do nothing and no one will benefit.

Inventors often keep ideas under wrap because the cost of patenting is so huge. If we want more of human kind's intellectual capital to be mobilised, we need to make it easier for inventors to gain time-limited protection to their work.

It is important to remember that patenting is a deal between the inventor and society. The inventor does not gain monopoly of the invention, only the right to exclusive use or to license the technology to others. If anyone infringes the patent, the inventor has to enforce his right at his own expense. A condition of the granting of the patent is that the inventor properly documents the invention and places this in the public domain so that when the patent expires, everyone can make full use of it. This is much better for society than people keeping ideas to themselves.

What we should do, is implement a proper global patent treaty so that inventors only have to go through one patent process rather than one in each country. Patents should be filed online, and the world patent database should also be free to use online.