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

[Edward Welbourne <eddy@chaos.org.uk>]

> 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?

a good question: but, sadly, not at all addressed by the modern reality
of patents, in which company B has but to threaten company A with its
arsenal of patents covering parts of what A has done; A is then forced
to allow B to undercut, unless A can afford to write off the monies
spent on a product it, post hoc, discovers itself unable to exploit.

Worse yet, company C can wade in, with a pure-IP business plan, and
demand money off both A and B, without having to embark on any of the
scary economic risks associated with actually trying to deliver
something useful to the public in a market without any assurance of
reward for honest labours, as A have by now discovered.

        Eddy.