Or you could choose a different place to drill!

 

Even if you do patent any idea, valid or not, all some jerkoff has to do is modify it slightly and your patent means next to nothing!

That was the idea of the patent system when it was started. To foster the expansion of ideas and technology. At the time patents started, there was no internet and or sharing of ideas. Putting that information out there available to the world for the price of a copy of the patent made ideas and technology go forward at a exponential rate. At the time of it's start patents where not about protection.

 

And even now, they're more about communication than about protection. Useful protection only comes from insanely expensive legal fees. But patents have all sorts of value in communicating to customers and competitors.

 

The trouble with most inventors is that they put on their inventor hat with the subtitle "take advantage of me".

Unfortunately, people that are technically creative are seldom good businessmen, and also the other way around. But it will always be the businessman that will know how to market and profit from an idea, since scientists, inventors and engineers are too busy trying not to stay obsolete in their own fields to pay close attention to finance and monetary (at least for them) nuances.

 

Look what Edison did in relation to certain Tesla patents for example back then.

What did Edison do to Tesla with respect to patents?

Or consider the kid who invented the microwave bacon cooker. Some a$$ without morals or decency modified it slightly and called it his. The kid got screwed and the a$$ went on to make $$$ from the idea of the kid.

Are you sure? Is this the story you are talking about?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Fleck

Making money from inventions _does_ have problems but they are much more complex than you are saying... I will stop here to keep things civil.

 

What did Edison do to Tesla with respect to patents?


Are you sure? Is this the story you are talking about?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Fleck

Making money from inventions _does_ have problems but they are much more complex than you are saying... I will stop here to keep things civil.

Look at the coils Edison used 'after' he came into contact with Tesla. Check out patent 512340.

In relation to Abbey Fleck, please pardon my age but she and her father were screwed for a time but in that instance the courts actually ruled in their favor which I just discovered. I remembered a certain interview from the 90's in which they had lost a considerable amount of potential money because someone 'modified' her idea. I believe some show like 60 Minutes or some similar show ran a story about it and how unfair it was back then. Therefore, my mind prior to 1997 was sure and I was correct. However, the 1997 court ruling I was unaware of now proves me incorrect in relation to that attempted theft of patent rights.

That being said, I don't know why you had to stop in order to keep things civil because I was indeed stating facts in time. One of the facts still stands in relation to Tesla and Edison to this day but the other one once was a fact until the courts ruled properly in the instance of Abbey Fleck and her father.

 

That was the idea of the patent system when it was started. To foster the expansion of ideas and technology. At the time patents started, there was no internet and or sharing of ideas. Putting that information out there available to the world for the price of a copy of the patent made ideas and technology go forward at a exponential rate. At the time of it's start patents where not about protection.

So in other words, once again the government found a way to say 'Yeah, you invented the thing and you will pay us a bunch of money for us to tell you that and acknowledge it but it really doesn't mean anything apart from us getting a bunch of money from you with no protections for no reason other than a bit of a pat on the back for actually discovering something useful'. Nothing changes and people always get the short end of the stick, even if it is their own stick.

"Governments don't live together, people live together."

-- The Outlaw Josey Wales

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

-- The United States Declaration of Independence