[zmgsabst]

3D printing seems a good example:

Extruded plastic took off before resin printers because the patents expired a few years earlier.

As far as I can tell, we could have had the 3D printing revolution in the 90s or early 2000s, but instead we locked the technology away to only be used in a few esoteric commercial applications until the patents expired.

[Moissanite]

Similar story with e-ink; the license costs for the technology are the main blocker to wider adoption.

[int_19h]

Given the abundance of cheap eink book readers, price tags etc on the market, cost doesn't seem to be a problem. OTOH the limitations of the technology - in particular, the contrast and the refresh rate - and how expensive large screens get, prevents it from expanding into more niches.

Perhaps if there were no patent, there'd be more third-party research to improve all these things faster. But as far as adoption of the existing stuff goes, I don't see how license costs are a direct blocker.

[braunboffel]

> Similar story with e-ink; the license costs for the technology are the main blocker to wider adoption.

How much is the license cost?