gerloff
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Montag, 31.Oktober 2005
The Economist last week published a survey on patents and technology. While the tone of the thing is not great, and the Free Software part is downright disastrous, the survey is instructive for what it leaves out.
While rooting for the "market for ideas" that the system of copyrights and patents creates, the author describes at great length the views of big business representatives. But there is no mention of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which account for the bulk of economic activity in most countries. After asking their opinion about the system, the result might have been quite a different one.
But there is an upside, too, as the lead article reflects at length the destructive side of the patent game:
But when talking to executives in the technology firms themselves, the language you hear most
often is that of “the arms race” and “mutually assured destruction”. Companies amass patents
as much to defend themselves against attacks by their competitors as to protect their
inventions. Many technology companies have recently championed reform of the patent system
to deal with spuriously awarded patents, licensing extortion and massive lawsuits. “There is a
broad recognition in the US that the patent system, if not reformed, will...begin to impede
American competitiveness around the world,” says Bruce Sewell, general counsel of Intel, the
world's biggest chipmaker.
The author, Kenneth Cukier (ex-Red Herring), comes to the conclusion that these are "adjustment problems" which, once overcome, will cease to exist in efficient markets for copyrights and patents. This is where he is wrong: The problems are not temporary, but rather built into the system.
