Without patents people who are technically skilled but socially inadequate would not ever try to build stuff.
Same goes for those who can promote themselves but just love the technical challenge much more and want to focus on that.
These are among the most productive demographics and without patents they'd be sitting idle because they would be too scared of working thousands of hours in vain, just setting the stage for the socially competent people to rip them off and cut them out of the enjoyment of the monetary and social rewards for the thing they have built.
At least with patents there is some sort of protection or I should say an illusion.
Say you have an idea and then one of the big guys with deep pockets and a huge marketing and PR department steals it from you or executes in a way which becomes world class, with a patent you have grounds to sue and you can also go to lawyers and convince them to work pro-bono because they'll get so much media exposure.
You can also go to a bank and ask for loans to promote your story and you can get a favorable interest rate due to the fact that you have the optionality to settle for cash.
A patent gives you options. It's also a concept which unlike so many corporate jargon terms is easily understood by the general population, and that is an advantage when you are a small startup or individual inventor going up against a behemoth...it enables you to convey social hatred against the giant company
A much more complicated instrument such as NDA/NCA gave the Winklevoss bros the ability to sue Zuck and to put themselves on the map with the movie "The Social Network", a patent as I said is much more clear and easy to understand, both for the courts and the court of public opinion
Patents also mean that the big co that copied your idea can sue you out of business for violating one of their myriad of patents, and that your patent is actually a derivative of one of theirs.
You want to drag the big company in front of the court of public opinion.
If your patent is perfectly nailed, then your version of the story will win.
In short you gotta have something to show to the journalists and lawyers who are your allies because they want to be the guys bringing down the behemoth and win the Pulitzer/lawyer of the year award.
If you don't have anything they won't write your story and they won't defend you.
Once the story is out there the entire public opinion will be on your side and you are looking at the very least at a hefty settlement which the behemoth would pay you in order to make the story go away.
A patent is a checkpoint for an individual inventor or a small startup
Without patents people who are technically skilled but socially inadequate would not ever try to build stuff.
Same goes for those who can promote themselves but just love the technical challenge much more and want to focus on that.
These are among the most productive demographics and without patents they'd be sitting idle because they would be too scared of working thousands of hours in vain, just setting the stage for the socially competent people to rip them off and cut them out of the enjoyment of the monetary and social rewards for the thing they have built.
At least with patents there is some sort of protection or I should say an illusion.
Say you have an idea and then one of the big guys with deep pockets and a huge marketing and PR department steals it from you or executes in a way which becomes world class, with a patent you have grounds to sue and you can also go to lawyers and convince them to work pro-bono because they'll get so much media exposure.
You can also go to a bank and ask for loans to promote your story and you can get a favorable interest rate due to the fact that you have the optionality to settle for cash.
A patent gives you options. It's also a concept which unlike so many corporate jargon terms is easily understood by the general population, and that is an advantage when you are a small startup or individual inventor going up against a behemoth...it enables you to convey social hatred against the giant company
A much more complicated instrument such as NDA/NCA gave the Winklevoss bros the ability to sue Zuck and to put themselves on the map with the movie "The Social Network", a patent as I said is much more clear and easy to understand, both for the courts and the court of public opinion