

Tesla boss Elon Musk hints at technology giveaway - cskau
http://m.bbc.com/news/technology-27741041

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aylons
"Mr Musk has said in the past that Space X does not patent its technologies
for fear that they could be stolen by competitors."

The USA has forgot it, but this is why we have patents: to stimulate people
(and companies) to publicize their technology instead of hiding. The most
important function of patents is avoiding science and tech secrets.

This is why patents on functionality rather than methods (as are most software
patents) are bogus. A patent for "recognize a phone number in a text field" is
useless for society because it does not tell us how to accomplish that, just
what need to be accomplished.

One should be able to patent a specific way of building a lamp. This way, it
will not be worth to keep it a secret, as the legal protection is more secure
than obscurity. OTOH, Patenting the concept of "a device which illuminates a
room with electricity" should not be acceptable.

This comment from Musk shows that the patent system in broken both ways: it
prevents what should be stimulated (creating new science and tech, even for
the same applications) and stimulates what should be prevented (tech secrecy).

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nhayden
I think the real issue here is that SpaceX has to compete on a global scale
and American patents don't do anything to stop foreign companies or agencies
from taking their technology. I doubt there is much, if any, competition in
the US for SpaceX.

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scragg
Boss is right.

