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April 07, 2006
Constraints
Andy sent along a link to an article by Paul Graham on software patents. It's balm for my conscience, since I've used a few second-rate ideas to try to get patents for my employer. Invention disclosures are perhaps the only self-serve bonus available in engineering.
Paul does however write that, "it's better, even from a purely selfish point of view, to be constrained by principles than by stupidity." Let's just say some of us are too dumb to understand what he means.
In a nutshell, Paul figures that patents are obligatory defensive weapons in a system where, "Business is a kind of ritualized warfare." Yet because they're similar to nukes as defensive weapons, young startups needn't worry about accidentally infringing a patent or two. You only need to worry if you're very successful. He concludes that patents are better than earlier alternatives in history, like secrecy and severe punishment for revealing things.
Posted by Mark at April 7, 2006 10:11 PM
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