Are patents even worth today other than for the medical sector?
Like, lots of things can be covered by copyright anyway. For example there is absolute 0 point in software patents, software is covered by copyright and society does not benefit for covering with patent law the parts that are not covered by copyright as they would be invented anyway, and a patent on non-copyrightable software stuff is the same as not being disclosed to the public as by the time the patent expires, it will most likely be too late, only thing it does is prevent other people from inventing it again, which I think is a worse consequence.The only sector where I see that patents still make a lick of sense for society is in the pharmaceutical sector as medicines are very expensive to develop and would not be properly covered by copyright.
Maybe it is just me but I just fail to see the point of patents for anything else in the world of today, they are a net negative for society.
mppm|1 year ago
It's not just you. Most people agree that the current patent system stifles innovation instead of promoting it. They are borderline unenforceable for small players, but make an effective moat (through sheer numbers, not quality) for the incumbents. And let's not even mention patent trolls. The only positive thing about them is that they allow people with strict NDAs to talk about their work, but this is hardly what patents are supposed to be for.
They can theoretically do some good, but the standards would have to be raised by a factor of maybe 100 for that, maybe more.