Using a patent as protection

This week, we have to write our last blog. During the last lesson, we have discussed intellectual property. Intellectual property can be defined as legal property rights over creations of mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Exemples of intellectual property are trademarks or copyrights.
Today, I will talk about patents. We can define a patent as a set of exclusive rights that is granted by a state to an inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention.

I found the article on the site as mentioned at the end of the text. It’s about the patenting of software and business methods. The article states that the patenting of software has always been more accessible to American inventors than to their European colleagues. Concerning using a patent, there are advocates and opponents. It’s said that newcomers in the market can secure themselves a place in the market by getting a patent on their software. By using a patent, they have a stronger position facing large companies as IBM and Microsoft. On the other hand, critics say that agreements between large companies make the market inaccessible to smaller companies, who don”t have the sources to make such arrangements. These companies must make sure that they don’t touch any patents. If they do, they can get a fine.

What’s my own opinion about this? I think that using a patent is a good idea to protect someone’s inventions. Otherwise, everyone will copy it. This can be defined as competition and infringement of copyright. I also have to admit that it’s a good idea for large companies like Coca-Cola. I also think that’s better to use it for huge inventions as Coca-Cola because Coca-Cola has a secret recipe to create the taste of it.


Source: http://www.ip-brands.com/content/news/articles/us-patents.aspx