Yesterday we were talking about the state of patent and copyright law, and whether it helps or hinders innovation.
Generally, the thinking was that “creator’s rights” encourage people to make things – if your invention is protected, you’re more likely to profit from it – but that after a certain point, competition-eliminating or world-changing innovations ought to be in the public domain. My brand-new colleague Joe pointed out that Jonas Salk famously did not patent the vaccine he created for Polio: “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” (Wikipedia)
I tend to agree with that statement.
2 Comments
I just love your quirky sense of humor.
Is your application of Pareto that 20% (the “few” and “rare” pieces) of inventions create 80% of the value to society? Or is it that 20% of inventions represent 80% of the innovation?
If I had to enter my own opinion, I’d argue the latter. Boring things like a better combine for corn harvesting or more efficient furnaces may represent 80% of inventions, but I don’t want to discount the value of each one of those. They’re not exceptional (or exceptionally innovative), but they are improvements. I do believe 20% of inventions are innovative.