[Wikipedia-l] Re: Patent idea

[Ray Saintonge]

Wesley Sheldahl wrote:

> On Thursday, April 1, 2004, at 05:34  PM, Timwi wrote:
>
>> Hr. Daniel Mikkelsen wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, Timwi wrote:
>>>
>>>> We were looking for something we came up with that we could patent,
>>>> right?
>>>
>>> Are we? I think it's an awful idea to have the Wikimedia Foundation 
>>> patent
>>> something.
>>
>> Notice that patenting something doesn't mean asking for royalties. 
>
> 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.

For some the bragging rights are the only benefit that they need. :-)

Ec