I started agitating against patents in ’89 when I saw what they did to technological progress in the energy field. So many good inventions lost because patents provided the legal means to prevent a new device ever getting to market. The incumbents (mostly big oil) could and did simply buy up the patents and shelve them.
So it is interesting to see that patents may go the way of the dustbin by just falling into disuse, rather than by anyone forcing changes in the law…
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