Tim Attwood <tim### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> >  Does it really matter? Nobody stops you from doing it anyways, no
> > matter how many patents there are on it (as long as you don't start
> > selling it to others). In most countries it's not even illegal to do
> > so. (In the few braindead countries where it technically is, who is
> > going to catch you?)

> What's wrong with wanting to sell a better gizmo?

  Well, software patents do suck, which is why there aren't such things
in Europe.
  As for device patents, the reason is to protect inventions for a limited
amount of time so that the inventor can benefit from it. (In theory this
gives an incentive to invent because you can be sure that you will benefit
from your own invention and thus all your work doesn't go to waste.)

> If I went to the hassle of writing a complex piece of
> software to do image enhancements enough to read a barcode
> on a cruddy 18x18 64 level grayscale mouse image, I'd think the
> right to sell it would be with the programmer who did all the work,
> not with some company that says it was their idea.

  Patents grant inventors some rights to their invention, for a limited time.
They exist to protect inventors from other people stealing their ideas.

> Why should some company be able to patent a discovered
> use of their product?

  It depends on whether it can be considered prior art or not. If it's
a completely new, innovative way of using that product, and this new
way was invented by the company itself, then why not?
  However, if it's an existing invention, then they shouldn't be able
to patent it, and technically speaking they aren't. Sometimes, however,
patent offices grant some patents they shouldn't. In the US, especially,
they just leave it to the courts to decide.

>  It'd be like Arm and Hammer wanting
> to patent baking soda toothpaste, or Kodak patenting family
> photo albums, or Ford patenting electric headlights for cars.

  If Kodak had invented photo albums, and nobody had invented them
previously, I see no logical nor moral problem.

> And, sure, nothing keeps someone from doing it
> for themselves as a home project, but the threat of
> lawsuits will keep anyone from investing in it as
> a commercial venture.

  The idea is that you can't steal someone else's invention and start
making money with it.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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