Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!voder!pyramid!prls!philabs!sbcs!root
From: root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Some 1987 patents of interest
Keywords: Patents
Message-ID: <1663@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 88 12:32:35 GMT
References: <5511@hoptoad.uucp> <16406@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <352@laic.UUCP>
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 33

In article <352@laic.UUCP>, darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) writes:
> In article <16406@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> casey@cs.ucla.edu (Casey Leedom) writes:
> >  But the story demonstrates the point I'm trying to make, which is in
> >fact simply a question:
> >
> >	Do patents stifle progress?

	Yes.  I look at it from this perspective: patents create an unfair
	monopoly (on sometimes trivial ideas, eg the Sun MMU Ras/Cas
	timing).  When patents are awarded for such concepts they serve
	only to stifle competition.  I suppose that if the patent laws
	enforced some concept of fair use such that people were guaranteed
	to be able to license a particular patent at a government established
	rate (based perhaps on projected volume of sales), they might
	not prove so objectionable.

> Comments?

	I would modify computer patents laws to much shorter terms, eg 5
	years, and enforce fair use.  If a concept is still in use after
	5 years then it probably has become a fundamental technique in the
	field and should not continue to line the inventors pocketbook.  After
	all I would surely hate to be paying the estate/descendents of
	Fourier, Steinmetz, etc everytime I directly applied one of their
	methods/techniques, etc :-)

> 
> Darin Johnson (...pyramid.arpa!leadsv!laic!darin)
>               (...ucbvax!sun!sunncal!leadsv!laic!darin)
> 	"All aboard the DOOMED express!"

					Rick Spanbauer
					SUNY/Stony Brook