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From: gsh7w@astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Hennessy)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.misc,comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: hayes lawsuit
Message-ID: <1991May19.200750.25020@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 19 May 91 20:07:50 GMT
References: <1991May18.154225.2699@unlinfo.unl.edu>> <TMB.91May19043527@volterra.ai.mit.edu> <1991May19.123246.6857@unlinfo.unl.edu>
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Michael H. Riddle writes:
#Excuse me?  I thought that was the whole idea behind a patent.  To reward
#the inventor.

Not in the United Stated at least. The purpose of a patent is to
benifit society, by encouraging inventors to publish their inventions.
Without patents, inventors would keep the details of what they do
secret. The inventor is given a monopoly for a certain period of time
to provide encouragement to release the details of their invention.


--
-Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia
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