> Wipers were famously pateted twice, for ships and for cars
And this doesn't strike you as ridiculous?
I understand we want to protect the little man inventor from staying poor as big companies get rich off of their ideas, but something like wipers being a patented concept on each different vehicle is not a function of this need.
No, we want to encourage people to take good solutions from a domain and to do the work to validate they're good for other domains too. That's non trivial work that needs to be rewarded for it to occur at scale.
BTW, the current state of the art in ship windshield wiping does not look like a car wiper at all.
And this doesn't strike you as ridiculous?
I understand we want to protect the little man inventor from staying poor as big companies get rich off of their ideas, but something like wipers being a patented concept on each different vehicle is not a function of this need.