On Friday 19 October 2007 10:26, Bill McGonigle wrote:
>
> Sometimes it seems people get the patent for asking the question that
> nobody ever thought to ask before. Once you come up with the
> question, the answer is often trivial.
A physics professor once forcefully insisted that physics was about
asking the best question - little else. After the question is
formulated, you can get any one of many grad students to solve the
equations. If you look at the experiments with the greatest effect on
science, that is certainly a reasonable generalization.
So asking the right question is easy? A price conscious admirer
asked an artist how many hours is took to make the painting. Knowing
the classic reply, the artist said, "Oh, about 6 hours of painting -
and 20 years of practice." The same is true about asking the best
technical questions.
>
> Having people taking the time to ask these questions is certainly
> useful in promoting science and the useful arts - whether the patent
> is the right mechanism to reward this kind of activity, I'm not sure
> about.
I am an unenthusiastic participant in the patent system. (No, none
of the companies I have worked for were able to force me to give them
my patent rights. I got all the patents myself. And made money on all
of them.)
One of the reasons I reluctantly patent when I have a basic
technical advance is to make sure it is recorded for posterity. If a
non-academic like myself asks a good question that leads to a valuable
advance, how is he to spread that knowledge in a world with so many
voices screaming at the top of their lungs? The patent serves a
purpose there.
Only one patent in 600 earns back the cost of patenting. Most of
them are junk or just held to prevent anyone from using the idea. But
the thread has already done a good job critiquing that, so I will
stifle my rant.
Jim Kuzdrall
P.S. If you are interested, look up patents 4,401,104; 5,574,287; and
6,190,377. My latest (and most significant) is still being evaluated
for a Secrecy Order prior to publication.
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