next »

[Μarkham]

Patent time periods need to be halved.  Technology has been advancing way more faster than it was 100 years ago, and the 20-year time limit is really holding us back.

[Falmil]

Also, patented technology needs to actually be used by the people who invented it. If you aren't actually making anything and are just sitting on a patent waiting for someone to fall into your trap, how is that innovation?

[Mikademus]

Patents are used for four things right now:

1) Blackmailing a.k.a. Patent Trolling: patent some common technology that's been around forever or invest in lucrative existing patent and sue/extort everyone with enough money.
2) Time Attack: use patents against a competitor to tie him up in court long enough for you to get enough market share to have a sustainable competitive edge.
3) Defensive hedging: collect deterrent counter-patents to pre-empt and forestall Time Attacks by your competitors. Basically the courtroom counterpart to stockpiling and MAD.
4) Monopoly Cement Hose: control the base technologies so that no newcomers or innovators can break through and threaten your revenue base.

This could easily be a video game, btw.

Anyway, not exactly signs of a well-functioning system to promote innovation any more.

[Falmil]

Patents actually made a bit of sense when they were invented due to reliance on physical labor and the giant leaps new technology could bring. In modern times however, all our technologies are more and more interconnected and "inventions" have become nothing more than old "inventions" applied differently. The fact that 2 people can, and have, come up with the same idea independently and yet the idea can still be patented is alarming.

[C.A. Sinner]

1) Blackmailing a.k.a. Patent Trolling: patent some common technology that's been around forever or invest in lucrative existing patent and sue/extort everyone with enough money.

Currently happening in the wonderful world of iOS. Some company claims to have patented the concept of in-app purchases and threatens to sue developers who use the feature.

[Falmil]

Is that still going on? I haven't been following it really.

While iOS is being attacked, Apple itself is attacking Android devices like HTC's products with its own patents to shut them down, because I guess Apple is special for its inventions and following usability standards should cost money.

[Rob Lach]

1. stop subsidizing videogame companies: videogame companies get more tax breaks and subsidies than the oil industry and the agricultural industry (as a % of the size of each industry i mean), that's ridiculous. that's why the AAA has such a monopoly over indies, the gov unfairly favors them and subsidizes them -- or if you're going to do that, at least be fair and give indies similar subsidies on their tax returns. it makes no sense that an indie should have to pay like 35% tax and EA have to pay 0% tax

This should definitely be written up and submitted

[im9today]

we the gamers

[im9today]

wait wait

WII the gamers

[Manuel Magalhães]

wii would like to say.

[Andrei Marks]

1. stop subsidizing videogame companies: videogame companies get more tax breaks and subsidies than the oil industry and the agricultural industry (as a % of the size of each industry i mean), that's ridiculous. that's why the AAA has such a monopoly over indies, the gov unfairly favors them and subsidizes them -- or if you're going to do that, at least be fair and give indies similar subsidies on their tax returns. it makes no sense that an indie should have to pay like 35% tax and EA have to pay 0% tax

Are these things true?! O.o I simply don't get why the US gov would allow tax reductions on AAA developers.

If anyone's still wondering about that, there was an article in the NYT all about it. Here's an excerpt on the subject of the tax breaks:

Because video game makers straddle the lines between software development, the entertainment industry and online retailing, they can combine tax breaks in ways that companies like Netflix and Adobe cannot. Video game developers receive such a rich assortment of incentives that even oil companies have questioned why the government should subsidize such a mature and profitable industry whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment.
...
One reason Electronic Arts and other video game companies have a bounty of tax incentives that other industries envy is that elected officials from across the political spectrum find it hard to resist offering incentives to encourage technological research — and jobs.
...
Video game companies also get other research-related breaks. In 1981, as Americans worried that Japan’s growing dominance in the auto business would be followed by a decline of the high-tech industry in the United States, Congress added another research and development credit, this time specifically for companies that increased their R.& D. spending from the previous year. The hope was that by encouraging companies to invest more in research, the private sector might create the next Bell Laboratories and inspire the kind of technological breakthroughs that benefit society as a whole.

There's much more detail in the article, with more history of the tax code and other ways the video game industry saves money.