said by itguy05:Only in the computer industry is it OK for you to spend money designing something new and different and then not be ableto protect it.
New and Different, is the problem as its usually nothing more then 'marginally improved (if that) old idea', and is that worthy of a patent? The other problem is patent aren't written up to protect an invention, they are written up to protect an idea which isn't what patents were for. Patents were designed to protect an expression of an idea, and not the idea itself as trying to claim a truly original idea is likely false as ideas aren't created in a vacuum and therefore not truly original.
When 'innovation' involves more money being spent on IP then the actual invention, one has to question the motives involved and the actual invention, hence the often well deserved title of patent troll as its rather clear that the intention was only to extort money from someone actually creating a product for public consumption (or as we have often seen to protect market share from companies who are doing about the same amount of 'innovation' as any other company in the field, for example could someone tell me the truly innovative differences between phones, for example size, shape, layout of icons, touch screens, etc aren't innovations of the last 10 years or even last 20 years so how do companies claim them as patentable today).
Blake
