donderdag, december 28, 2006
Google Patent Search
Patents basically give you a certain timeframe to exploit (as a monopolist) your own invention. The backside is you need to publish all details of your invention and share it with the world. Patents are thus a system to allow rapid technical evolution and associated economical growth because others can see what you did and build upon it. Without patents there would be far less stimulus to invent, because others would just walk away with your great ideas anyway, so why bother...
That's (my version of) the theory. And theoretically I'm in favor of patents. But than there is reality.
First of all looking at the practical side of the story, patents are a play of the big corporations because it is an expensive and complicated process that involves very specialised patent attorneys and writers. Effectively, it's out of the reach of small companies or average Joe, especially if you want to file your invention in several countries.
Secondly, patent organisations (www.epo.org in Europe for example) have granted ridiculeous patents, especially in the area of software. This endangers the system of patents on its own. At present there are lawsuits from Blackboard that claims to have invented learning systems or something close to that. You could so to speak have patented the concept of a button on a web page...
Thirdly, because there is almost no other way for research centres to measure their economical outcome, many researchers are evaluated on the number of patents they file. My company, IBM, for example is proud to file the highest number of patents every year. But that is a system that pushes people to file for even more patents that not necessarily make sense or are worth protecting. It just adds to the corporate patent 'war' library that can be used to scare off new entrants, hold competitors hostage in costly trials or suck dry via legal settlements.
I'm an average Joe. I have no company. And I still want to build this about2findout.com project. If along the way I would invent something or introduce new concepts, there is no way I could pay for a patent or other form of legal protection even if I wanted to. Luckily for the open source and web2.0 community there is something as Creative Commons, also known as copyleft. It provides a legal framework to share your work, without others later on being able to put their own name on it.
Another problem with patents is the openess. Or the lack of it. It is almost impossible that Linux has no single line of code in it that breaks a patent of let's say - Microsoft. Or any big firm for that matter. That is why the big guys cross-license their patent portfolio with eachother. Patents are close to corporate politics. You can't constantly check all your work for previous patents on it, can you? It used to be quite difficult anyway to search patents, but as with many types of scattered or secret or hard to find information, Google comes to the resue. They just launches the Google Patent Search, that searches patent databases.
Just for fun, I typed in the word e-learning.
http://www.google.com/patents?q=e-learning&btnG=Search+Patents
It would seem SAP filed a patent for course structures in e-learning. Right.
Bottom line, as long as about2findout.com stays small and never generates profit things will be fine. If it gets too big or makes profit there will be players on the market that (mis)use patents or copyrights. Just take the example of YouTube: it never made money, but the second rich Google bought the company, the company UTube sued because it resembled its name.
DECISION: I'm staying away from patents and all that expensive protection because I don't believe the little ones can win here. I put all my trust in the community and the Creative Commons licenses.
That's (my version of) the theory. And theoretically I'm in favor of patents. But than there is reality.
First of all looking at the practical side of the story, patents are a play of the big corporations because it is an expensive and complicated process that involves very specialised patent attorneys and writers. Effectively, it's out of the reach of small companies or average Joe, especially if you want to file your invention in several countries.
Secondly, patent organisations (www.epo.org in Europe for example) have granted ridiculeous patents, especially in the area of software. This endangers the system of patents on its own. At present there are lawsuits from Blackboard that claims to have invented learning systems or something close to that. You could so to speak have patented the concept of a button on a web page...
Thirdly, because there is almost no other way for research centres to measure their economical outcome, many researchers are evaluated on the number of patents they file. My company, IBM, for example is proud to file the highest number of patents every year. But that is a system that pushes people to file for even more patents that not necessarily make sense or are worth protecting. It just adds to the corporate patent 'war' library that can be used to scare off new entrants, hold competitors hostage in costly trials or suck dry via legal settlements.
I'm an average Joe. I have no company. And I still want to build this about2findout.com project. If along the way I would invent something or introduce new concepts, there is no way I could pay for a patent or other form of legal protection even if I wanted to. Luckily for the open source and web2.0 community there is something as Creative Commons, also known as copyleft. It provides a legal framework to share your work, without others later on being able to put their own name on it.
Another problem with patents is the openess. Or the lack of it. It is almost impossible that Linux has no single line of code in it that breaks a patent of let's say - Microsoft. Or any big firm for that matter. That is why the big guys cross-license their patent portfolio with eachother. Patents are close to corporate politics. You can't constantly check all your work for previous patents on it, can you? It used to be quite difficult anyway to search patents, but as with many types of scattered or secret or hard to find information, Google comes to the resue. They just launches the Google Patent Search, that searches patent databases.
Just for fun, I typed in the word e-learning.
http://www.google.com/patents?q=e-learning&btnG=Search+Patents
It would seem SAP filed a patent for course structures in e-learning. Right.
Bottom line, as long as about2findout.com stays small and never generates profit things will be fine. If it gets too big or makes profit there will be players on the market that (mis)use patents or copyrights. Just take the example of YouTube: it never made money, but the second rich Google bought the company, the company UTube sued because it resembled its name.
DECISION: I'm staying away from patents and all that expensive protection because I don't believe the little ones can win here. I put all my trust in the community and the Creative Commons licenses.
