<nettime> patenting open source digest [jonathan, schear]

["nettime's_prior_artist" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Re: <nettime> PATENTING OPEN SOURCE
     Jonathan <monoman@uq.net.au>
     Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>

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Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 05:05:18 +1000
From: Jonathan <monoman@uq.net.au>
Subject: Re: <nettime> PATENTING OPEN SOURCE

Tom,

My experience is very different to this idealistic motivation for a patent 
monopoly that you present.

Having been involved with patent applications on Intellectual property that 
I own, I can tell you that the patent process is very much directed towards 
obfuscation, rather than sharing knowledge.

The owner of a proprietry technology is advantaged by patenting the means 
to the technology, rather than the technology itself.  By doing this, you 
can protect the details of your innovation, and create a monopoly over the 
manufacturing process that is necessary to create the innovation.  The 
advantage of this is that you never release any details of your innovation 
(as would be required by the publishing of a patent of the technology 
itself), while protecting your intellectual property.  This is a well 
established practise.

It is also common practise among patent attorneys to drag the actual patent 
application process out for the longest time possible.  This gives the 
manufacturer the best advantage in time-to-market for a new technology, and 
the best opportunity to secure the largest possible market share.  The 
publishing of an examined patent essentially describes for all who would 
have it the exact details of the new technology.  This is very useful to 
would-be competitors, and allows them to bring a competing technology to 
market without any of the development costs or time that the patent holder 
has incurred.  Without a significant amount of money to back up a 
protracted legal battle, a patent is essentially useless as protection of 
your idea.  The best protection is silence, and part of the 'art' of patent 
law is this process of obfuscation.

Ever wondered why "patent pending" appears on so many products?

Cheers,
   JDSC

 >The surprising thing about this is that this is one of the things that
>patents are designed to encourage. patents are public documents and the
>technology contained within them is open to all comers for purposes of
>research and education. Instead of technical advances remaining secret and
>hidden form the community, these are made available so that that technical
>progress and hence human well-being is advanced. The urging below is
>another example one that shows the benefits of the system of patents on
>the publication of ideas. many corporations already follow such a practice
>of publishing descriptions of technology that they have produced that they
>do not wish to pay the expense of patenting.
 <...>

[memento mori]

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Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 11:01:31 -0700
From: Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> PATENTING OPEN SOURCE

     [also Cc: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>, 
      dcsb@ai.mit.edu, desk@doorsofperception.com]

At 02:41 PM 6/22/2001 +0100, you wrote:

>--- begin forwarded text
>
>Status:  U
>Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 19:55:40 +0200
>To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
>From: Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@transmediale.de>
>Subject: <nettime> PATENTING OPEN SOURCE
>Sender: nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net
>Reply-To: Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@transmediale.de>
 <...>

This was discussed at their fall meeting.  Following this path might also 
deter those who would seek to keep these technologies out of the hands of 
independent developers or average citizens.

steve

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