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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (169883)	8/25/2005 5:15:26 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I understand that there are many frivolous and ridiculous patents and patents that shouldn't be awarded because they aren't novel or unobvious. That is a problem within the system but no reason to trash the system as a whole. The thing about Mickey Mouse is that Disney's nurturing and investing in that image is what has created its value. If Disney didn't have billions of Micky Mouse images plastered everywhere on products they invested in, it wouldn't be an issue because no one would want it. The copyright is only part of the problem. If people want to have a Mickey Mouse like valuable character, they should invent one and invest in it. Look at how quickly Harry Potter became an icon. It can be done but it shouldn't be done by stealing someon else's innovation and investment. You should be able to patent your novel and unobvious process for filtering ginger juice. You should not be able to patent ginger juice IF ginger juice was already available. If you discovered that no one was using ginger juice to, say, clean bugs off your car then you might be able to patent that usage. I think RoundUp went off patent a few years ago but I still see people buying their stuff. Trademarks and history and the such have as much to do with sales of a product as the product itself. IMO I don't think intellectual property is protected ENOUGH even with the sometimes silly nature of the inventions. Even if Amazon patented the one-button purchase, did it prevent other sites from selling their goods? Did anyone actual patent the sale of goods on the internet? I wonder if that were possible way back when.