Openmoko keyboard mockup

Stefan Monnier monnier at iro.umontreal.ca
Thu Jan 8 19:11:45 CET 2009


> [1] - which is ironic given that they were invented to encourage people to 
> publish their ideas rather than keep them secret.

Actually, not so ironic: it basically means that rather than keeping
them as internal secrets, they get to lock them in
a government-provided vault.

IIRC, the history of patents is a bit more interesing than people think,
and the end result's paradoxes are not as unintended as you'd think.
But it really should be expected: just as is still the case now (if not
even more), the (potential) holders of big patent portfolio had a lot
of leverage.


        Stefan





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