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Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

(patentpandas.org)
1798 points jerryX | 4 comments | 30 Nov 18 05:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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taneq ◴[30 Nov 18 06:06 UTC] No.18567105[source]▶
I'm amazed at how relaxed their response is. If I told someone about some of my work and then found out they'd tried to patent it, I would be pissed!
replies(4): >>18567175 #>>18567212 #>>18567994 #>>18568074 #
sneak ◴[30 Nov 18 10:00 UTC] No.18567994[source]▶
If you want your secrets to remain secret, you shouldn’t divulge your secrets.
replies(3): >>18568344 #>>18568370 #>>18569664 #
cwingrav ◴[30 Nov 18 11:33 UTC] No.18568344[source]▶
If you want to protect your secrets, you should patent them so when someone figures out your secret, or in this case your creative idea, you have a leg to stand on. Otherwise, they figure out your secret or idea and you have nothing. This is the entire purpose of patents and, despite many of the current issues with patents, they are still effective in many cases.

While you can argue patents are only paper, a valuable patent is worth defending. In this case, she was able to demonstrate prior art, meaning that a patent could not be granted since they have no idea to protect since it's been in the public domain (i.e. released to the world) and not an original/non-trivial idea. This is why academic publication, or in the past the use of laboratory journals, are useful in documenting time of the invention.

replies(1): >>18568722 #
sneak ◴[30 Nov 18 12:58 UTC] No.18568722[source]▶
The patent system is just a mechanism that uses the threat of state violence to prop up the idea that an idea is property that can be owned. This concept is false, and the sooner people abandon that model the better off we will all be. The state can’t use the threat of violence to make pi equal to 3, to make a public domain codec a “google invention”, nor to deed title to the number two. Remember, parents are just an industrial incentive mechanism propped up by cops, nothing more.
replies(1): >>18569682 #
monochromatic ◴[30 Nov 18 15:21 UTC] No.18569682[source]▶
You could say the same thing about any form of property.
replies(1): >>18569878 #
mdpopescu ◴[30 Nov 18 15:45 UTC] No.18569878[source]▶
No, only about Imaginary Property.
replies(1): >>18569999 #
monochromatic ◴[30 Nov 18 16:03 UTC] No.18569999[source]▶
No, it is literally true that the threat of state violence is what props up the ability to own any property.
replies(1): >>18570045 #
mdpopescu ◴[30 Nov 18 16:08 UTC] No.18570045[source]▶
This is so obviously wrong I have no idea how to continue.
replies(1): >>18571232 #
1. monochromatic ◴[30 Nov 18 18:25 UTC] No.18571232[source]▶
What stops other people from taking your tangible property other than the threat of state action?

Sure, there are plenty of people who would refrain from stealing anyway just because it’s morally wrong. But there are enough people who don’t care that the whole idea of property rights becomes meaningless in practice without some way of enforcing them.

replies(1): >>18571874 #
2. nybble41 ◴[30 Nov 18 19:29 UTC] No.18571874[source]▶
> What stops other people from taking your tangible property other than the threat of state action?

Aside from morals, the threat of reciprocation, not by the state specifically but by the property owner who was harmed and anyone authorized to act on their behalf.

Unlike actual property, IP isn't based on reciprocation. The penalties for infringement go way beyond simply losing similar forms of IP.

replies(1): >>18573047 #
3. monochromatic ◴[30 Nov 18 21:54 UTC] No.18573047[source]▶
The penalty for stealing my TV might well include a bullet in the chest. I’m not sure what your point is.
replies(1): >>18573541 #
4. nybble41 ◴[30 Nov 18 23:01 UTC] No.18573541{3}[source]▶
That would simply be murder, not a just or reasonable response to someone stealing your TV. In any case it still doesn't involve any state action, so we appear to be in violent agreement that, contrary to your original assertion, the state is not the only thing stopping other people from taking your property.