For all the patent haters in here

[Sho'Nuff]

I have submitted your comments on Tesla to Elon Musk. Perhaps he has a billionaire will have the good business sense to contact you and offer you a job as some sort of business decision adviser.

Perhaps he won't, it would just be yet another stupid business decision by him after all. So don't be surprised if you never get the call.

Thanks for passing my comments along. I wish Elon the best of course. But I maintain that while his decision to open source all Tesla technology might bring the technology to fruition, it is also likely to undermine Tesla's profitability unless its core business changes.

But you are right, I can't see inside his head. I can only comment on his actions with the limited knowledge that he makes available to the public. Maybe he has some brilliant idea to make Tesla money from this action.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

The big issue is this: patents and trademarks don't exist to make money for companies. They exist to provide incentive for companies and people to produce innovation which over time becomes public domain. If things never enter the public domain (like Mickey) then the benefit to society is lost.

Patent term and copyright term are very different. I agree that copyright term has gotten out of hand. Trademarks have always been of indefinite term (assuming contiunued use and maintenance fee payments)

But these companies purposely file in courts that are either sympathetic to patent trolls or ignorant to technological issues (which is worse), and it creates a system where you need billions of dollars of patents to to innovate.

There is no court in the USA that is not ignorant to technological issues. Even the federal circuit (the appellate court that handles all patent appeals) is staffed almost entirely by judges that do not have a technical degree.

As for needing billions of dollars to innovate, you might want to check your facts. There are hundreds of thousands of patent applications filed every year. IBM files the most. About 3000 per year. There are a handful of other companies that file over 1000. The rest are filed by smaller companies, individuals etc. This clearly undercuts your assertion.
Heck, I drafted, filed, and prosecuted a patent application pro bono for a grad student the other year, and it recently issued. He developed the invention in his basement with almost no funding.

It is like the Cold War and MAD all over again, and the only people benefiting are the companies abusing the system.

Why? Because the only cases you hear about in the news have to do with Apple and Samsung? This is precisely the issue I raised in the OP. You are taking a teensy tiny number of cases and applying them to the system as a whole. See any problem with that?

 

[Jodell88]

@OP

What are your thoughts on Prenda Law?

 

[Mixolydian]

Hey OP, can I have some free patents?

 

[master_shake_]

cisco sold patents to an non practicing entity...

that's like handing the keys to the drunk guy.

 

[Phoenix86]

So in order to convince us patents are good you show us examples where society has benefited from their absence? 😛

 

[Red Squirrel]

I want to patent various methods of patent trolling. I'll be able to troll the trolls and get rich!

 

[SP33Demon]

Thanks for passing my comments along. I wish Elon the best of course. But I maintain that while his decision to open source all Tesla technology might bring the technology to fruition, it is also likely to undermine Tesla's profitability unless its core business changes.

But you are right, I can't see inside his head. I can only comment on his actions with the limited knowledge that he makes available to the public. Maybe he has some brilliant idea to make Tesla money from this action.

Do you really think Elon is always trying to make money for Tesla? You should study up on Musk first, I know, it's outrageous that anyone wouldn't want to make money. lmao

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Do you really think Elon is always trying to make money for Tesla? You should study up on Musk first, I know, it's outrageous that anyone wouldn't want to make money. lmao

Tesla is a public company. Elon is its CEO and the Chairman of its board. He has a legal OBLIGATION to act in the best interest of the owners of the company, i.e., to use sounds business judgment in an effort to make money for Tesla's shareholders. That duty is business law 101.