In article ,
Dave wrote:

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 08:39:24 -0400, "Vito" said:

Patents are guaranteed in the Constitution. Currently,
the term of a patent is IIRC 20 years from application, 17 from patent
grant, or in case of medicines, at least 14 years after FDA approval. That's
fine. The problem comes from laws that require consumers to buy from only
one of many suppliers licensed by the patent holder

You haven't thought this one through, Vito. The whole theory behind patents
is that in return for making discoveries public the patent holder should be
able to earn a monopoly profit for a limited period of time. If patent laws
aren't enforced by allowing the holder to stop unlicensed distribution, it's
as if there weren't any patent at all.

You haven't thought it through, Dave. If there were no patents, people
could reverse-engineer new products freely and without risk of
prosecution. Patents give an exclusive licence/protection in return for
publishing the discovery/process. Companies can & do sit on technology
rather than patent it so as to keep the IP in-house.

A lot of the problem is that patents that are patently ridiculous have
been and still are being issued.

PDW