[Wikipedia-l] Re: Patent idea

[Michael Snow]

Ray Saintonge wrote:

> 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. :-) 

And then, there are even people out there who would consider patenting 
something, just to deprive the rest of the world the use of it. 
Remember, a patent is the right to prevent use by others; the 
patentholder is not obligated to make the patented thing available to 
the public.

--Michael Snow