You know when this started, right? It was the big change in the USPTO under Clinton in 1993. That transformed everything having to do with patents profoundly. We're still living with the consequences.
I used to run the Bright Ideas at one company I worked for. They wanted me to do it because then I would be ineligible for the scheme, which, given that I was quite prolific, saved them money. Then the word came down from on high that we would no longer be paying the standard 10% of cost-savings for two years which has until then been the norm. The idea was that employees should donate their ideas for free out of company loyalty.
From then on, the only messages which we deposited in the Bright Ideas drop boxes were a variety of expletives, rude messages and some rather imaginative and anatomically impossible drawings....
Although it's gotten worse, patents have **stalled** innovation since the beginning of the concept of patents. I read that James Watt's innovations around steam engines were not significant enough on their own to kickstart the industrial revolution. Instead, the acceleration only happened after his patents expired and it was possible to combine his innovations with those of other people. It was the combination that was necessary.
Patents inherently block the free flow of ideas and progress, and that's not anything new. They are, after all, temporary monopolies.
You know when this started, right? It was the big change in the USPTO under Clinton in 1993. That transformed everything having to do with patents profoundly. We're still living with the consequences.
I used to run the Bright Ideas at one company I worked for. They wanted me to do it because then I would be ineligible for the scheme, which, given that I was quite prolific, saved them money. Then the word came down from on high that we would no longer be paying the standard 10% of cost-savings for two years which has until then been the norm. The idea was that employees should donate their ideas for free out of company loyalty.
From then on, the only messages which we deposited in the Bright Ideas drop boxes were a variety of expletives, rude messages and some rather imaginative and anatomically impossible drawings....
Although it's gotten worse, patents have **stalled** innovation since the beginning of the concept of patents. I read that James Watt's innovations around steam engines were not significant enough on their own to kickstart the industrial revolution. Instead, the acceleration only happened after his patents expired and it was possible to combine his innovations with those of other people. It was the combination that was necessary.
Patents inherently block the free flow of ideas and progress, and that's not anything new. They are, after all, temporary monopolies.
Citation: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.27.1.3