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I think that after a short amount of time (perhaps 10 years after being registered) all patents should be released.

This period would allow the innovator time to bring their product to market and begin profiting from their ideas. It would prevent patents being seen as a way to unfairly limit competition. Innovation would be encouraged. It might also reduce the desirability of patent-trading.



I wrote about limiting patents to 7 years: http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/03/04/in-favor-of-s... (note that the title isn't mine, the title I had proposed was "the 7-year patent").

That's the best compromise I could come up with. I'm not interested in hearing from people who have a 100% ideological position. I'm interested in finding a solution, which implies a compromise from both sides. "Patents are evil" is not a solution.


"In any compromise between good and evil, only evil benefits."

Which is why the government grows and grows and society gets more and more disfunctional.




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