General > General Technical Chat
Should all information be freely available to everyone?
vk6zgo:
Back in the early days of electronics, large companies tried to enforce patents rigidly, but with the explosion of hobby activity in radio, magazines showing "the latest circuits" sprung up around the world, so anything new wasn't secret for long.
They managed to get agreements with other big firms who would "Swap patents with them", but the plethora of hobbyists & small businesses ensured that the lid was definitely off "Pandora's Box".
T3sl4co1l:
--- Quote from: RJSV on November 29, 2023, 02:03:42 am --- A couple of seconds, into reading this, I realize you mean info available, whereas I'd be thinking in terms of costing cash money, vs 'free' in the literature available, when subject matter might get dicey.
--- End quote ---
It's a Libertarian trope, just open up The Marketplace Of Ideas and let everything figure itself out.
What they so often and gladly forget is that ideas are worthless. :P
...The converse, along these lines, would be interesting I suppose, if impossible to pull off for obvious reasons; what if every idea, every packet of info, carried a cost, a mandatory transaction no matter how small? There were some proverbial, universal app store that you had to commit to buying something off of? The mere existence of a fee, no matter how trivial, would seriously recontextualize information for a lot of people.
Mind, that's what information is, ultimately; you can't have information without entropy, and we're all constantly paying in terms of that. But it's an indirect cost, and we so often and gladly ignore apparent fixed costs.
Tim
Psi:
--- Quote from: thm_w on November 28, 2023, 09:58:53 pm ---
--- Quote from: Psi on November 28, 2023, 11:11:12 am ---I also wonder if maybe patents should not be ownable by companies, only by individuals.
I'm not sure how that sort of a system would actually work, but it's interesting to think about.
--- End quote ---
What are you thinking the benefit would be though?
If I produce a patent while working and being paid at a company, who would own it?
--- End quote ---
The company would get a license to use it forever, but you, or all the RnD team, or all employees at the company at the time would technically own it.
I know this idea has issues, I just like thinking about it sometimes.
I really don't like that companies can buy and sell patents. People come up with ideas and make discoveries, companies don't
ebastler:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on November 29, 2023, 07:51:34 am ---Back in the early days of electronics, large companies tried to enforce patents rigidly, but with the explosion of hobby activity in radio, magazines showing "the latest circuits" sprung up around the world, so anything new wasn't secret for long.
--- End quote ---
You seem to be mixing up "patents" and "secrets". They are not the same; in fact they are opposites. It is a core part of the "patent" concept that, in exchange for a limited period of protection, your idea will be published -- such that others can learn from it, come up with alternatives or improvements upon it.
(Having said that, modern patent-writers are often trying to undermine that idea by being as hazy about technical content as they can get away with...)
ebastler:
--- Quote from: Psi on November 29, 2023, 09:21:56 am ---
--- Quote from: thm_w on November 28, 2023, 09:58:53 pm ---What are you thinking the benefit would be though?
If I produce a patent while working and being paid at a company, who would own it?
--- End quote ---
The company would get a license to use it forever, but you, or all the RnD team, or all employees at the company at the time would technically own it.
I know this idea has issues, I just like thinking about it sometimes.
I really don't like that companies can buy and sell patents. People come up with ideas and make discoveries, companies don't
--- End quote ---
Would that be an exclusive license to the company which employs the inventors? Royalty-free too? Then what would be the difference to the company actually owning the patent?
Or would the inventors be free to license their invention to competitors of their employer? Would that be fair, given that their employer paid for the inventors' time, and for a lot of extra effort to turn the patented idea into a marketable product?
In Germany, the "Employee Inventors Act" stipulates that
* the employing company has first right of refusal to claim exclusive ownership of the patent -- in which case they pay the examination fees etc.;
* if they make money from the invention during the term of the patent, they have to pay a royalty to the inventor -- but at a rate which is significantly lower than what an independent inventor would get, taking into account that the inventor was already paid for doing his job;
* if the company decides that they do not want to claim the invention (maybe business plans have changed, or it does not look like such a great technical solution upon second thought), the inventor is free to take it through the patenting process and look for other licensees independently.
Not a bad approach in principle, although implementation has its challenges in the details.
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