A patent is “an exclusive right granted for an invention”, providing protection to the patent owners for a limited time (usually 20 years). The original use of patents was to provide a financial incentive for creating and innovating while preventing other people from ripping off the idea and using it themselves. In theory, this practice makes sense. If you’re going to be an inventor and make super cool things and are the true, first person to make said super cool things, then I believe you should have the right to protect this information and the product from being poached by other people. Considering that patents are filed territorially (that is, if you file for a patent in the US, it only applies in the US unless you file elsewhere), that means you’re pretty much competing against a couple hundred million people for the right to your own intellectual property, assuming you are the first to file a patent for this particular thing. Thus, I think it makes sense the patents exist.
I think patents used in their original purpose are beneficial to society and promote innovation. I think they’re beneficial because they give an incentive for people to build and create since in a society like ours, the only way you’re going to end up on top is by having a ton of money (which is just a sad truth). We’re also a society reliant on advancing technologies, spoiled by everything that we now have easy access to, from kitchen gadgets to a mobile internet. Generally speaking, we only want to continue to advance and grow, coming up with new ideas and rolling out novel devices. That being said, I’m a little iffy on whether I think they’re necessary for society. On the one hand, there are certainly benefits and I think that having them gives more structure to the intellectual world and to innovators everywhere. On the other hand, since the system is easily susceptible to corruption and manipulation, there are some instances in which having patents is more detrimental than beneficial. For example, in the world of software patents, we really need to lay down some clear guidelines on what can and cannot be protected by a patent. I was really frustrated reading the Vox article about the Supreme Court not understanding what software really is. Because of their lack of understanding, the whole software industry suffers. Because they cannot set clear guidelines about what should and should not merit patent privileges, people and companies suffer. They say that “mathematical algorithms can’t be patented”, but software is just a bunch of mathematical algorithms. In theory, anyone with a computer could eventually recreate the software. I don’t think it’s the same as having a physical device that you melded together yourself. I mean, it’s one thing to create software that manipulates a physical machine, but another to have software that exists solely on a computer (or similar thing, like a phone or tablet). So I guess I’m kind of in the boat of patents being restricted to physical, tangible artifacts, at least for the sake of clarity. However, at the same time, I don’t think multiple companies should just be able to outright copy other peoples’ software. For example, if some smaller company built a super cool game, I don’t think it’d be right for a larger company went and took the idea, created a near-identical game, and was able to make way more money than the smaller company just because people have heard of them. In this case, I’d much rather root for David than Goliath. On the other hand, when I read about patent trolls, I was even more frustrated. In this case, I wanted to root for Goliath (software companies) rather than David (patent troll companies). These trolls literally make money by buying up a bunch of patents that they didn’t even originally file for from bankrupt or other companies for cheap. Then they basically just go out and sue everybody for the slightest of copyright infringements. To me, it’s bogus, and I think it totally abuses the system and ultimately harms the software companies who are just trying to innovate.
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AuthorJulianna Yee. Archives
March 2018
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