Comments on: Patents in the future

By: Jay Oatway

Jay Oatway — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:15:51 +0000

Nothing has impeded innovation more than the patent and copyright law. Today "Intellectual Property" has a net negative effect on innovation thanks to what some call "The Chilling Effect". All laws since the inception of copyright nearly 300 years ago have continually strengthened the hand of those with large armies of lawyers at the expense of smaller companies and individual inventors incapable of defending themselves against the scurrilous lawsuits of corporations. But there is hope for reform. Have a look at the 14+14 movement. This might be the best thing to happen to technological / creative protection since its conception under the Statute of Queen Anne. The other side of the coin is the rapid growth of the Creative Commons. It's conceivable that as corporations attempt to lock up more and more cultural progress, the free-to-share movement will usurp the corporates through its ability to more rapidly innovate. Check out this article:People Own Ideas. Creativity always builds on the past. Those who control the past, control the future.

By: Thomas Drakengren

Thomas Drakengren — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:04:08 +0000

This is interesting indeed. Right, there’s a speed difference.
And even more interestingly, there’s interaction between the two, in that innovation increases the speed at which innovation realization is commoditized. Perhaps the reason for the higher speed of innovation realization commoditization (ha!) compared to just innovation commoditization is because there’s no significant feedback in the other direction yet (even if case 2 above is certainly fueled by technology).

By: Martin Börjesson

Martin Börjesson — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 12:28:13 +0000

I agree that I was fuzzy about the concept of innovation and didn’t make a difference between innovation itself and realization of the X which innovations was about. After thinking for it for a minute I would argue that both is happening, but maybe at a different speed.

It is evident that the time lag between idea and the realized idea is continuously becoming shorter. But I also see that we

1) are training more and more people to be abstract thinkers at higher levels (even it isn’t as successful as we would like)
2) are increasing the communication possibilities which allow this growing elite to be exposed to all kinds of ideas and innovation
3) are more and more fancy uniqueness and small scale creativity – especially since our organizations are evidently not able to cope with more creativity than what is happening in the R&D department

Today everybody will be a writer, but everybody don’t have necessary qualities to be a famous write. The blog supports the theory of “the long tail” which means that almost everybody can be a writer for their own small niche group.

I think the next step will be that every small group will have their own inventor for their small niche needs.

By: Conceptual Integrity

Conceptual Integrity — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 11:56:01 +0000

Patents and the Commoditization of Innovation

Martin Börjesson writes about patents and a possible future where innovation is a commodity. Interesting thoughts! However, I disagree with the fact that innovation itself would become a commodity, in that scenario; rather, the means of realizing the …