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Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

(patentpandas.org)
1798 points jerryX | 1 comments | 30 Nov 18 05:25 UTC | HN request time: 1.071s | source
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gammateam ◴[30 Nov 18 07:03 UTC] No.18567313[source]▶
> More importantly, sharing work publicly keeps the project can alive and inspires others to continue developing!

Which a patent does too, just with a license or 20 years later. It keeps people from reinventing the wheel and gives the disclosure rights even if they didn't have the infrastructure to create or monetize on their own. This isn't one of those nefarious software patents where the whole thing would be obsolete within 5 years, this is LED books, which simply becomes more feasible as transistor sizes shrink and battery technology improves, perfect for a 20 year exclusivity period before falling into the public domain where it can be vastly more practical to create in 2033.

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1. olefoo ◴[30 Nov 18 07:25 UTC] No.18567383[source]▶
It does seem odd to stick with an intellectual property system that is so obviously deficient in it's stated purpose of "improving the useful arts and sciences". Current patent law amounts to a barrier to entry for most small potential competitors in any market where defensible IP is required. Big companies can cross-license or litigate around issues but small players are locked out of the markets they might want to compete in because the costs are prohibitive. Yet another example of the American system having failed to protect competition and encouraging cartelisation.