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Interesting from the FT [1]: Airbus said although the design was worthwhile enough to protect with a patent — like about 6,000 other ideas its engineers devise
by mwc 12y ago
Interesting from the FT [1]:
Airbus said although the design was worthwhile enough to protect with a patent — like about 6,000 other ideas its engineers devise every year — it was not an immediate prospect for shuttling passengers from Heathrow to JFK. “This is not something that’s currently under active development,” Airbus said.
[1] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ba80c518-6492-11e4-b219-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fhome_uk%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3JGVAqlXi http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ba80c518-6492-11e4-b219-00144...
- caoilte 12y agoMake patents 100x more expensive and see if they still think that.
- thisjepisje 12y agoWhat problem would that solve?
- ripberge 12y agoPeople patenting ideas they have no serious intention of ever building. The maximum effort they'll make is stopping someone else from doing it.
- takeda 12y agoMuch better idea would be something similar to trademark: "If you don't defend it you lose it". Similarly, if you're not utilizing it, then you probably don't need it.
- techdragon 12y agoThis is why patents are "short". To offset the monopoly. It's why you hear pharmaceutical companies whine patents are strong enough, they need them longer. Automobile makers, aeroplane makers, ship builders, and "industrial" companies that make machinery and equipment rarely complain, they are pretty much ok with their duration, they might like them a little shorter but could take it or leave it. And on the other end if the spectrum we have software companies who are forced into the game because of consumer electronics companies (for whom perhaps something between 5-10 years would be best) taking patents on "features" they wanted to make as software... And the software companies pretty much want 0-5 years because this stuff is a all mostly math, or irrelevant, or under better protection by copyright, etc. Patent limits were devised as a one size fits all solution not taking any of this diversity into account.
- javert 12y agoYeah, we definitely don't want Airbus to come up with new ideas. Fuck those guys.
- whacker 12y agoit will create a market where only the rich can get patents - precisely the opposite of what I presume you hope to achieve.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoKeep patent costs the same, but reduce their lifetime to 5 years.
- philwelch 12y agoOne surprising thing I learned is that large companies like to mass-produce patents, even ones they have no intention of ever implementing or suing over. Why? Because they provide a MAD defense against patent suits. If Boeing ever sued Airbus for violating patents, Airbus could countersue and, odds are, each company is violating some patent of the other. Also, if each company has 10,000 patents applying to aerospace, it's going to take each company's legal team a lot of time to sort through them and figure out which ones they can countersue over. Time = money; a patent attorney's time especially so. So coming up with as many patents as possible makes it expensive (often prohibitively so) to sue over patents. Your natural reaction might be to think this is an outrageous waste of people's time, and you'd be right. But if you don't do it, your competitors will and you will be vulnerable to patent suits that, because of how this works, are essentially impossible for you to avoid making yourself vulnerable to.