Sergey wrote regarding 'Re: [OT]:  Domain names for evil patents' on
Mon, Feb 13 at 10:29:
> There are numerous examples when "garage inventors" won agains the
> BIG GUYS.  Some names: Hewlet-Packard, Apple, Microsoft, Google,
> Genentech, Celera Genomics.  Not all of these started in a garage,
> but all were startups in a field with large companies.  

And obviously they could have never made it without patents?  Is that
because someone else could "do it better"?  What patents does Google
depend on for its business?  What about Microsoft?  I'm quite certain
that both depend on trademarks, but just what patent has led to Google
being the most popular search engine today?  Do they have a patent on
fast database lookups?  A patent on a clean user interface?  A patent
on their page ranking algorithm (the basics of which are discussed no
their "about" site and the details of which are a trade secret - not a
patent)?  A patent on selling ads whose content is related to the text
a user typed in (maybe, I'm not sure on that one)?

> IMHO, people often complain about patents/big companies/monopolies
> when they do not have a really BIG idea, or do not have business
> accumen to make it happen.

Some of us think that, since we live in a society that is supposedly
driven by market forces, perhaps every business should compete on
their merits or ability to compete in a free market.  Using patents to
block anyone else from making the same thing is both socially
backwards (these are my thoughts!  I won't share them with you unless
you pay me for them and promise not to repeat them!) and anti-market
forces.  If someone else can make the same product for less money, then
it seems that the inventor perhaps lacks the "business accumen" to
compete in a free market.  If cheaper really isn't better, then the
cheaper product will die out.  There's rarely any reason to stifle
competition through patent-encumbering much of anything - especially
things like algortihms.

Make a better product at a fair price, and it'll succeed - unless
someone else does it better.  Patents make some sense when a developer
is ramping up production or something like that, but really, since
when was it any government's job to enforce ethics?  Because that's
what it boils down to - attempting to force ethical behavior on people
who would otherwise "steal" someone's invention without giving
"proper" credit.  I have little respect for laws whose only purpose
are stifling of competition and making sure someone gets richer.  And
yes, I *have* had significant ideas taken and made into fairly
successful comercial products.  Oh well, I don't feel like anyone owes
me fame and fortune anyway.

Charging for thoughts in a me-first, greed fueled society which has
fallen behind the rest of the world acedemically and socially.  Boy, I
wonder if the two are possibly related...

--Danny, cynical
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