MOTM

On Tuesday, June 26, 2001, at 12:28 PM, jpotter@... wrote:

> Interesting...
>
> Are patents renewable?
>
Nope. You've got to remember that patents are basically a government-
granted temporary monopoly for the common good. You're granted the
monopoly in order to get you to share your invention for the good of
everybody. You get X years to profit exclusively from it and in return
the public gets it after that.

A permanent patent would defeat the purpose. Copyright exists for similar
reasons. Though Disney seems to be able to circumvent this reasoning,
hence, the next time the Mickey Mouse copyright is about to expire we'll
probably see yet another extension to copyright.

> I guess 17 years is plenty to milk the cow, though.
>
As the founding fathers intended.

Tomy

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