Kieran Senior

• Published:May 14th, 2008
• Comments:No Comment
• Category:Pages

I’m sure we’re all familiar with what patents are, those exclusive rights an "inventor" has over an invention.  Sure, there’s a strict process that must be met in order to file a patent, but anyone and their friend can patent an idea, and some of them are just absolute BS.  I’m going to whack a fork on the end of a pen so businessmen can eat and write at the same time, it’s a great idea, it might help the world a whole lot, but you know what? I won’t let anyone else use the idea unless they pay me lots of money.  (Please note, that IS a joke.  We could always patent "KNIFE WREEEENCH!" - Scrubs rocks.)

I didn’t really think about patents much until a friend of mine shared information about patented shadowing techniques which were widely used in rendering engines.  The idea was nothing new, and had been implemented a great many times before.  Here’s a few reasons why I hate, hate, hate patents.

• Money grabbing fiends
• Inhibiting the world from using new ideas
• Ideas aren’t necessarily new, they’re just patented (look at LZW encoding twenty years ago)
• Stopping the development of the world

I could sure go on and on, but the more I hear about them, the more I dislike them.  I think the patent system should be abolished completely.  You can still make money from unoriginal ideas, and you should share with the world what you have created.  If you’re really up your own arse about it, then just make some rule such as "slap my name on it if you do release it so I can suck up all the glory".

I should patent patents, that’d mess the world up.