My alternative busines model

[Niall Douglas]

On 6 Dec 2002 at 15:38, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:

> > I agree to an extent. I still feel patents /can/ do more good than
> > harm ie; the original idea is sound. Patents should in theory be
> > anti- monopoly because they permit fresh blood to break the big
> > competitor with an innovative new product. The short lifespan of
> > patents prevents a monopoly preventing competition by generic
> > clones.
> 
> Maybe. I only know they're bad for software. For other fields, 
> I think the professionals on those fields should say. 

Agreed. A really good but off-topic thought is whether genomes from 
DNA should be patentable. I personally think if they're long chains 
of genes then yes, but single genomes is like patenting the plus 
operator.

It's interesting DNA - it shares many of the same properties as 
computer software and I daresay may be even more important to mankind 
in the long run. The other big big fish is quantum computing - we're 
probably a century from the self-organising quantum arrays that we'll 
need to make it viable, but boy, imagine the power!

> > The original thought on patents was that they were supposed to be
> > cheap. Since their price has escalated and escalated where it can
> > now be 20,000 euro for a single patent in the US. Again, that's fine
> > for big corporations but useless for small startups.
> 
> Much more so in Europe.
> The EPO advertises an average European Patent for 29800 EUR

Sweet Jesus ...

Makes sense though if you had to stick it through the patent office 
of every EU member. It's still a huge quantity of money for a private 
individual.

The whole patent system needs reform. I reckon it's causing more hurt 
than help :(

Cheers,
Niall