Re: [Free-sklyarov-uk] Re: [DMCA_Discuss] Re: [Patents] IT World Feature: Patently ridiculous: What's Europe to do?

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> It takes a lot of money to turn R&D into a commercially available
> product - product packaging, market testing, etc.  However, why should
> company A spend such monies if company B can wait until company A has
> spent such monies, learn from what company A did without having to
> spend the money, and then start selling the product as well, often at
> a cheaper price than company A because company B doesn't have to spend
> the initial monies?

Well said, that is what the universitarian patent movement argues (usually
in less clear terms).

But still I am not convinced that this scenario really exists or is
frequent.  If company A does all the marketing preparations, it also gains
experience and first mover advantages.  These are usually enough to offset
any initial monies, unless company A is not really up to the job (e.g. a
startup that needs to bootstrap itself by means of a monopoly advantage).
Even then, at least in Europe, company A can also to some degree use
competition law to protect itself.  It is not permissible for company B to
engage in certain kinds of free-riding behavior.  Their product must at
least have a clearly distinct identity, as far as this is possible.  They
are e.g. not allowed to dress the product up in such a way that they can
profit directly from company A's tv commercial campaign.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/