[compsciphd]

things can be patented even if there's prior art (patent examiners aren't all knowing). One can try to get the patent invalidated if there's prior art or just violate it somewhat brazenly and dare the patent holder to sue you.

you might decide that its not worth violating as the value you get from it isn't much (i.e. mini game while loading might be cute, but might not move the needle at all for sales), and the patent holder might decide not to sue you as they don't view their prospects of winning to be high.

and then you're left in the middle where the patent might prevent novel new ways of doing things because initial violations wont move the needle, but those initial experimentation could open explorations that could eventually move the needle, but since we don't see any moving the needle up front, never get to that point.

[chii]

> since we don't see any moving the needle up front, never get to that point.

aka, patents no longer "promote the progress of science and useful arts".

I think it's high time patents are reformed in the digital world. Things like game mechanics patents, design patents etc, ought to all be abolished.

Look at the fashion industry - there are no patents in clothing design. And they haven't collapsed; in fact, i think fashion florished more because of the lack of patents!

[arghwhat]

> aka, patents no longer "promote the progress of science and useful arts".

Truly innovative things are often not patented at all anymore, and instead kept as closely guarded business secrets. Patents are mainly used for when the company doesn't have a way to keep it secret, and for random things to bolster IP value.

[mschuster91]

> Look at the fashion industry - there are no patents in clothing design. And they haven't collapsed; in fact, i think fashion florished more because of the lack of patents!

Ah that depends on your viewpoint. Shein and similar outlets are making bank on stealing stuff from designers and rapid-manufacturing absolute dog quality shit [1].

Had fashion something like design protections, designers would at least have some recourse against these exploiters.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/02/details-i-m...

[arghwhat]

> things can be patented even if there's prior art (patent examiners aren't all knowing).

To be clearer: Patents that are invalid can get issued because the reason for it being invalid is not known, and I'd argue that nowadays this is likely a vast majority of patents. Patents are filed in huge numbers, with many companies just bolstering the number of patents they own as it inflates the value of their intellectual property, rather than caring too much about the value or even validity of each of them.

Figuring out if a patent actually has any value is unfortunately up to those deciding to challenge it.