Free Markets By Ending Intellectual "Property"

Of the near 7 million patents issued in the US since 1789, almost nothing patented has ever turned into a product.

Of the extremely few patented ideas that have ever turned into an actual product, almost none has been profitable.

Any patent attorney can tell you this.  Stephan Kinsella is one such patent attorney, who holds his own patents, and is quite frank about all of this.

Of the items that were profitable, it is most likely they would have been profitable anyway, patent or not.

How come intellectual property law is a non-performer (or worse?)  Because products and services are constantly in development, and a patent is for a fixed idea.  If a patent is a thesis, the idea will provoke antithesis (a good alternative) in the minds of others.  Yet others will reflect on the thesis and the antithesis and synthesize yet another alternative.  The lively antithesis and synthesis are far enough away from the thesis to not infringe on the patented item.  Ossified, the thesis is overwhelmed by those who seek to serve others (antithesis and synthesis), the thesis goes no where.  It is condign punishment that those who try to control markets with ersatz laws generally fail.  Do not become one of them.

The value to the market is the division of labor producing better solutions for ever narrower groups.  Those thus satisfied are uninterested in the patented idea.  Such customers support the new businesses and wealth, defined as access to affordable options, is spread to more people.

The number one patent holder in USA, IBM, is open sourcing much of its patent book.  They've learned their lesson after a bruising few decades.

What matters in business is not control or monopoly, such as you get with patents, but customer service, such as you get with marketing.  It is not a patent that is valuable in business, but a customer list.  Your customer list, which takes less time and money to build than it does to gain a patent.

We live in a patent regime, and it is not likely to go away.  But by understanding that intellectual "property" is a net deficit helps one to build a business faster with less money spent. It saves time and money to know how things really work.

You recall the start of a business: what problem do you experience in a field you love?  What problem actually causes you to suffer, at some level.  And does working on the solution give you joy?  That combination is the dead giveaway that you found your calling, the work that you are meant to do.

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