[zarzavat]

It’s a form of patent trolling. The point of patents is that inventors should be compensated fairly for their inventions. Not that they should be able to prevent the production of those inventions like little dictators - that does not advance society.

[coldtea]

>It’s a form of patent trolling

No, it's not. Patent trolling has a specific meaning (having vacuous broad patents or using patents against companies who aren't really infringing, associated with not having an actual product and making your money off this, usually having hoarded many patents exactly for this purpose).

This is simply the creator of this design enforcing their patent, like any business with a patented product does.

>Not that they should be able to prevent the production of those inventions like little dictators - that does not advance society.

Nope, it's exactly that they should be able to control the production of their inventions. If it wasn't for that control, patents would have no practical purpose.

[donatzsky]

A patent is a time-limited monopoly on an invention, so yes, preventing others from making the same thing is exactly what a patent is for. The idea being that during this time, the inventor can either be the sole source of the widget, thus profiting from it directly, or licence it to someone else. Either case means that they get "compensated fairly".

[flangola7]

That is not what a patent is for. It may unfortunately currently be legal, but that isn't its true purpose.

[eesmith]

That's exactly what a patent is. The purpose (at least for the US) is stated in the US Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8:

> [The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Now quoting from the US Patent and Trademark Office at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/essentials#questions

"A U.S. patent gives you, the inventor, the right to “exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” an invention or “importing” it into the U.S. ... What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import the invention, but the right to stop others from doing so. If someone infringes on your patent, you may initiate legal action."

[flangola7]

Read my comment again, as you obviously did not internalize it the first time.

[eesmith]

I have done so, but did not find enlightenment about the true purpose of patents.

Perhaps you did not explain it well enough and can provide more details?

Without it, I see no serious conflict or disagreement between my quick summary and the more complete history at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_patent_law

[flangola7]

> I have done so.

You very obviously have not. I'm not going to do your job for you and spoon-feed it to you like a child. This isn't complicated, any truly introspective person with critical thinking skills can handle this.

[Tor3]

Please explain its true purpose then. The "exclusive rights in exchange for publishing" seems to have been the very idea behind patents for hundreds of years, all the way back to Jerusalem and Venezia according to Wikipedia, and also defined as such in the modern patent systems established later, in the US and elsewhere.

[teddyh]

IIUC, U.S. patents were constructed to be an immigration policy tool. “Come to America, get paid for your knowledge!” This would encourage people who knew how to build and make things to immigrate to the U.S. Note that patents are an optional part of the constitution; not an inherent right of inventors.

[yieldcrv]

state sanctioned monopolies enshrined in the constitution are exactly what I find alluring about patents

[cwillu]

The inventor is not holding on to the rights in order to collect payouts from third parties that inadvertently infringed on the invention. No, it's not a form of trolling at all.

[Tor3]

The point of patents is that you get an exclusive monopoly for the invention for a limited time, but to get that monopoly you have to publish (as a patent) the design and it's a free for all _after_ the monopoly time has passed. You are free to license the invention to others, but there's no requirement - it's not a part of the patent system.

[khazhoux]

The point of patents is quite literally that inventors get to control the production of their inventions.

[cush]

Society wouldn’t advance if anyone could copy the work of others either. Gender would swoop in, create these on the cheap and completely ruin the sound that the creator intended.

[cush]

Fender*