Quote:
Originally posted by LiquidRulez
I dont know about you guys, but if I had designed the WW, You can bet your @ss that Ive have a patent pending before I had shown or told anyone of it. Because these "clones" are going to be popping up for quite some time and theres really nothing he's going to be able to do to stop it legally. NOTHING.
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Perhaps you need to be a little more versed in international patent law. There is no single international patent body to cover one's designs. To attempt to apply to cover one's @ss world-wide is also practically futile.
A patent, or even a patent-pending, is next to useless unless you have the financial might to back it up in every single country where it might be violated.
Worse, there are countries that flagrantly disregard copyright and patent law. The company I work for, Cisco, has recently opened legal proceeding against a Chinese company that has practically ripped off Cisco's products hook, line and sinker. Right down to the custom hardware ASIC's, and even right down to the exact same known software "bugs". That company was earning $3B/year from doing this, but believe me, it's going to be a heck of a fight for Cisco to do something about it due to the lack of "caring" by the Chinese government. I believe Cisco will prevail here, but only because they have the mammoth legal and financial resources to do so, far, far, far beyond what any individual can do.
You can apply for your patent, but let me tell you, unless you foresee it earning you at least $1M/year, you may as well not even bother because if the idea is good enough, you'll run out of money chasing down the copy-cats anyway.
So what's left for the "little guy"? Answer: nothing, except to rely on effectively a Gentleman's Agreement, which in this day and age is also worth next to nothing, because for many people, the attitude seems to be "Well if their @ss isn't covered, I'm going to fry it and screw the sucker".
pippin88, and even Stoodoo, both just gave me the courtesy of acknowledging where the inspiration came from. That's all I ask. Is that even too much to ask in this day and age?
I can't hold back a pending storm of copy-cats, even if I were equipped with a US patent application that you seem to cherish as being some all-powerful thing that it is not. A patent can be challenged. US corporate history is littered with cases of predatory larger companies who steal other smaller company's technology, and when push comes to shove, the smaller company is eventually driven broke paying the legal fees to defend their technology, and then said predator comes along and buys up the pieces, along with the patents anyway.
If you think a patent cover's your @ss when you're anything less than a multi-million dollar corporation, then it's time to get a grip on reality. Now multiply that problem for every country world-wide.
End-result, patents are futile for the little guy, especially a little guy sitting in another country.
So what's your problem then? That someone has the decency to at least acknowledge a source individual for their implementation? You think that someone doesn't deserve at least that right just because they don't have a pointless patent application?
Sorry for the rant to all those who are watching. I've been silently watching this tension build for a while now and felt the urge to vent.