Re: [Patents] Paper: "Rent Seeking and Innovation"

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

The Aharonian has a good point: "software patenting is just one more
expense you have to factor into your budgets" ...

  the question is precisely there : what part of your budget is
devoted to legal matters (such as applying for patents if you wish, or
provisionning for possible infringement suit, whether frivolous or
otherwise, and whether you wish or not to patent yourself).

  It so happens that while in some industries, the legal overhead is
bearable, compared to other costs, in the software business (for
example) the legal part of your budget goes out of proportion with
other parts.
   Hence, software production is totally distorted by legal issues
(onother word for "legal issues" is "government meddling") which is
quite untolerable in a liberal, market oriented society.

   Regulations are necessary, to set the rules of the game.  But when
the major cost of running a business comes from the regulations, then
there is something deeply wrong.

   And patents are only regulation.  There is nothing natural in IP.
It is indeed anti-natural since the very nature of knowledge is
non-rivalry ... it can be given without being lost.


Bernard



On Fri, Apr 18, 2003 at 09:41:46AM +0200, Simo Sorce wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-04-17 at 23:36, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> > Simon,
> Simo (s/n//)
> 
> >     At least in the United States, there are cost effective strategies
> > for startups to make use of patent protection, you just have to do a 
> > little
> > learning and research.  
> 
> There are many strategies, I know venture capitalist often want to see
> some patents or have some assurance some patents will be produced before
> giving money, that doesn't mean this make an economy healthy.
> 
> > It is not a suffocating process.
> 
> It is, in the US you end up to be absorbed by a major company, become a
> parasite or die, buried in legal actions. The SME does not survive long.
> 
> >   Maybe in Europe
> > it is different, but here in the US software patenting is just one more
> > expense you have to factor into your budgets.
> 
> One more expenses, mean less capital to really invest in innovation,
> means less competition, and inability to lower prices.
> That mean you may get out of business suffocated by the side costs in a
> weak economy.
> 
> Simo
> 
> p.s: I sent cc to patents as it seem to me your was a public answer were
> you just missed to add the list by mistake, if not I apologize.
> 
> -- 
> Simo Sorce - simo.sorce@xsec.it
> Xsec s.r.l. - http://www.xsec.it
> via Durando 10 Ed. G - 20158 - Milano
> mobile: +39 329 328 7702
> tel. +39 02 2399 7130 - fax: +39 02 700 442 399



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