[lelanthran]

> Some argue that this will effectively kill R&D, because the second you've created something - others would start reverse engineering,

Reverse engineering is not needed - it's time-consuming, expensive and error-prone.

The large incumbents would simply poach away key people and have that R&D in a month!

As much as some people hate to admit it, intellectual property laws have their place. Are they perfect? Not in my opinion! But, things would be worse without enforced intellectual property laws.

[derivagral]

> The large incumbents would simply poach away key people and have that R&D in a month!

This reads to me like those key people have no incentive to stay after applying their knowledge to the org.

[lelanthran]

> This reads to me like those key people have no incentive to stay after applying their knowledge to the org.

What incentive could you possible offer them? If a FAANG wants your 20-man company's trade secrets, all they have to do is offer a key person $500k/year salary.

If a FAANG wants your 20-man company's patent, they are going to pay you for it.

And, as someone who's actually been in court more than a few times, no, they won't kill you via legal bills in a long protracted court case (say, by violating the IP) to get the IP - that happens so rarely you may as well hope for significant winnings at a casino.

And even if they pursue a protracted legal battle hoping to kill the company to acquire the IP, then they have to bid on the open market for it, against other FAANGs!

And even if they do kill the company, then they still have to deal with whoever gets the IP (which is why that strategy is almost never viable), because that IP doesn't become public domain simply because the company died, it will go to someone, somewhere.