On Friday, April 2, 2004, at 08:15 AM, Andre Engels wrote:
"Wesley Sheldahl" wsheldahl@iglou.com schrieb:
True. However, the historical stated purpose of patents is to allow an inventor to profit from his or her invention for a period of time before everyone else starts profiting from the invention, and thereby provide incentive for further innovation. What other benefit would there be to patenting something? There needs to be some benefit to justify the expense involved.
Well, there is the technique of 'defensive patents'. The idea is to use the patents as a protection against paying royalties on other people's patents, by threatening to counter-claim when someone tries to do so. Problem is that to make it work, one will have to have a portfolio of very many patents, which is nothing that Wikipedia (or any .org, I think) can hope to get.
Andre Engels
True, I had forgotten about those, which is why I asked. Patents don't seem worth the bother to me for a non-profit, but if someone really wants to go for it just for the bragging rights or whatever, more power to them.
Wesley Sheldahl wsheldahl@iglou.com