Intellectual Property and the Need For Rapid Innovation
President-elect Obama emailed me to ask for my thoughts on a long-term plan for the economy. Instead of riffing on bailouts, public-works programs and the like, I went with something else that has been bouncing around my head lately – the hoarding of intellectual property. While not a fully-formed plan, I believe it is one of the meta-issues that is preventing new ideas and technology from fulfilling their greatest promise to our society. Here is what I wrote to him:
We need to rethink and overhaul our intellectual property laws. Too many good ideas are being warehoused. The patent system was never meant to cover minor variations on themes or to extend for an infinite duration. We have seen in our software industry how open-sourcing has led to great innovation and collaboration. We need to do the same in other areas. For example, we will never realize a sustainable energy future if separate entities jealously guard pieces of the puzzle that are needed to create a synergy that will allow true transformation. The person with the best battery technology may not be the same one who has the best chassis design or power-train concept. I believe that we should judiciously exercise the eminent domain concept to put the best ideas into the public square and allow all citizens to incorporate them into new designs and ideas. We really have no choice, as we are in a state of dire emergency.
Lucas Watson
Most countries in the third world never respects intellectual property rights. piracy is so rampant in asian countries.-”*
Zak Fisher
intellectual property is not really respected in most countries in asia where piracy is so rampant.`’~