Do Patents Encourage Or Discourage Innovation?

Replies

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  Ramani Aswath

  If innovation is in you, their outflow is independent of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights)protection.
  Perhaps for the young a patent is a public demonstration of their intellectual prowess. It may also be saleable.
  For the past few years I have been introspecting on whether we really own anything on earth. My own conclusion is that we are just lease holders including this body we are currently housed in. In my opinion I do (this ego Ramani) does not innovate. The innovation is given. I am the channel. I have given in writing to my employers that my name shall not be put in any patent developed with my participation. The innovations are happening and being patented, but without my name.
  If anything the removal of the stress of appending my name seems to accelerate the innovation process because the outcome does not personally matter.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  The ongoing Samsung Vs. Apple battle actually got me worrying. So if I've a new idea that I want to develop and market, I'll have to first find out whether it's already been patented. Because if my idea is already patented somewhere, the patent owner can quickly ban my further business. That would simply ruin all my efforts and money put in developing that idea.
  
  I personally think the whole patents system should be eliminated because every advancement in technology is aimed at benefitting the human race.
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  Ramani Aswath

  No one patented the wheel or the plough.
  I agree that whole IPR issue is contentious and should be got away with.
• 

  docel

  Agreed, the inventors must be credited and compensated for their blood sweat and tears, but not at the cost of their selfish motives that kills advancement and wide usage.
  There are companies with the sole intention of preventing a Process or Product from reaching the market- Elimination of rivals.
  There are companies who have bought exclusive rights of a process and made sure that it is shelved. Look at the junk technology flying people across the globe...
  There are others who will drag a Technology into court and fight for years....till the concerned Patent becomes obsolete.
  There are people who claim Patents for methods that have been used by everyone for ages. Look at the Basmati rice and Neem stories.
  Patents have strangled Technological growth due to their constraining agreements and conditions. They have suppressed advancements through market hogging. We buy what is on the shelf, even if it is junk. Simply because there are no alternatives - the possible alternatives being actively blocked by a singular manufacturer.
  Competition is cut-throat, to the extent of hijacking ones invention by devious literary expertise. It is easy to take a Patent , copy it and re-write a new Patent application and get a Patent. appoint any of the $/minute Patent advocates who have claimed the Moon and Mars and several other Meteorites in space.
  It is easy to condemn a good Patent idea . Buy the rights, implement the process and deliberately engineer proof of its inefficacy. It is how the Majors have dominated the world with a handful of products.
  Control the market with products determined by money power, advertising and selling techniques that over power other good but silent products. Bind the buyer to a junk technology by restricting the usage. Look at the incompatible devices in the market. They ahve so many proprietary restrictions that force you to a limited usage. Only HP can service your equipment. You have to use only MS compatible SW or the warranty is void.
  The buyer has no choice but to endure these restrictions without choice for his money. A few majors with enough oomph dominate the market. You must buy because you have no choice.
  
  So, where does this all lead to?
  
  Open Source. Technology sharing. Violations. Non dependence.
  Look at Linux. See what a simple Arduino has done, in the name of 'free' use. Free ?? It has created more than 100 millionaires, without any Patent rights or manufacturing constraints or service monopoly. It has also brought to fore the realization that it is better to have a million researchers than a handful. It has resulted in the belief that Patents are the bane of progress. And expensive , too. China has violated every Patent in the world . It also proved that the very same patents can be extended to many other spheres of implementation by independent modifications that can bring the cost down to earth.
  There are thousands of innovators and inventors now. These are the simple people in their homes, unaware of the Patent Office or the IEEE. They have doled out methods and Technology that the industry majors have failed to do so. Either due to deliberate suppression of alternatives or due to the continued production of junk simply because of the demand.
  The present day Aircraft technology has not changed much in hundred years. Yesterdays " failed Patents" have been proved today to be excellent and efficient. Processes of Tesla that were killed by vested interests have surfaced in today's world as being efficient and workable alternatives.
  
  Sony, Honda have patented techniques used by kids since 50 years. At anytime anywhere, they can claim Patent violation if you use an IR pair for a simple line following robot.....
  
  So... there is a movement everywhere in the world today. The silent unnamed agenda is "Stop the majors from dominance". The industry too has jumped in with gusto, because they get a process or technique virtually free and in record time simply through parallel processing. Look at the PC. It is an obsolete word. IBM has lost it to the " PC in a Pen".
  
  Nothing like starting a thread, get many interested people of all walks of life around the globe to work on it for their mutual interest and joy. Then, open a company and sell the results of the Forum outputs as a new innovative product. No restrictions, no rules, no proprietary constraining tags. everything available free to anyone anywhere. Also, the freedom to hack, modify configure and use according to the whims of the buyer / user.
  Bare-foot research. Hobby Researchers. Open-source. It is the in thing at the moment.
  Lets not bother about the Patents. They have killed themselves already.
  
  ps. Sorry, this is a rambling of random thoughts written in a hurry. Kindly excuse me if you find any literary violations.
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  RISHABH LALA

  Patents although encourage innovations but the rules needs to be amended, as many organisations today are busy in making slight changes in the already patented innovations and then they give their name to it.; now they are free to use that technology without any loyalty .