Today, any big company will tell you that the limited monopoly of a patent or copyright gives them a head start and ultimately fosters innovation and competition.
the 30 year limit encourages the development of new improved technologies. And sometimes holding onto a pattern stifles the product. In the days of VCR tapes Beta max format was superior And Sony held the patent closely. . But JVC licences out the VHS format to anyone willing to pay royalties and the technology thrived. that is until better cheaper storage formats were developed. IIRC the patents outlived the technology in the case of compact video tapes. IMHO the current trend is many technologies are pushed aside by new technology long before the patent expires. So whoever develops the new technology and patents it has the competitive edge.
What I think is sad is the other countries that blatenly copy things and disregard Patent laws.
BTW thanks for the link.
Tin
Edited: beta was developed by sony, jvc had the VHS patent.
]]>maybe the 8% is actually pretty lenient.
+1
It wouldn't have been 8% if Formlabs had approached 3Dsystems first.
]]>http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2014/12/0 … ettlement/
Details of the two companies’ financial deal were not revealed in the court filings dismissing the patent lawsuit earlier this week. But a new 3D Systems filing with the SEC lays out the price tag: Formlabs gets a “worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty bearing” license to eight 3D Systems patents in exchange for 8 percent of Formlabs’ net sales.
Bad news for the future of hobby SLA printers.
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